Diab Accuses Politicians of Blocking Aid to Lebanon

Aoun met with Diab on Tuesday prior to cabinet session (NNA)
Aoun met with Diab on Tuesday prior to cabinet session (NNA)
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Diab Accuses Politicians of Blocking Aid to Lebanon

Aoun met with Diab on Tuesday prior to cabinet session (NNA)
Aoun met with Diab on Tuesday prior to cabinet session (NNA)

Prime Minister Hassan Diab criticized on Tuesday some Lebanese parties of working on blocking aid to Lebanon.

"You do know that contacts … with our friends around the world, are witnessing positive and encouraging progress towards helping Lebanon. However, there are people who still insist on increasing the suffering of the Lebanese," said Diab during a cabinet session.

"Is it acceptable that there is a party official whose sole concern is to block any help?" he asked.

The PM described as “shameful” statements that his government heard from certain Arab states about contacts that some Lebanese politicians had held with them.

"We have reports about a scheme to obstruct the government from inside the state administration," Diab added.

At the start of the cabinet session, President Michel Aoun highlighted the obligation to speed up the implementation of decisions aimed at improving social and economic conditions.

Aoun said it is urgent that Lebanon completes reforms as requested by the international community in order to redress the country’s ailing economy and finances.

He also said that the rise in coronavirus cases necessitated a review of the related measures and the acceleration of their implementation.

Aoun and Diab’s positions came a day after the International Monetary Fund warned of the high cost of holding up reforms in Lebanon, two months into bailout talks to redress its nose-diving economy.

Reading out the cabinet's decisions, Information Minister Manal Abdel Samad indicated that the cabinet had agreed to adopt a wait-and-see approach to the resignation of Alain Bifani, the Director General of the Ministry of Finance.



UN Agency Says Israel Shuts 4 Schools in East Jerusalem

A boy stands outside the gate of the Kalandia vocational training center (KTC), run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which was raided by Israeli forces earlier at the Qalandiya camp for Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank on February 18, 2025. (AFP)
A boy stands outside the gate of the Kalandia vocational training center (KTC), run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which was raided by Israeli forces earlier at the Qalandiya camp for Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank on February 18, 2025. (AFP)
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UN Agency Says Israel Shuts 4 Schools in East Jerusalem

A boy stands outside the gate of the Kalandia vocational training center (KTC), run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which was raided by Israeli forces earlier at the Qalandiya camp for Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank on February 18, 2025. (AFP)
A boy stands outside the gate of the Kalandia vocational training center (KTC), run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which was raided by Israeli forces earlier at the Qalandiya camp for Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank on February 18, 2025. (AFP)

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees says Israeli forces raided four of its schools in east Jerusalem, ordering their closure.

Israel has severed all ties with the agency, known as UNRWA, and bars it from operating in its territory. It says the agency allowed itself to be infiltrated by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, allegations denied by UN officials.

UNRWA said police entered a training center by force on Tuesday, firing tear gas and sound grenades and ordering its evacuation. It said 350 students and 30 staff were present during the raid on the Qalandiya Training Center.

It said police and city officials ordered the closure of three other schools in east Jerusalem, two of which proceeded with the school day.

Israeli police spokesman Dean Elsdunne said police did not enter the UN buildings and that Jerusalem municipal authorities carried out the closures. He said police were deployed to protect the city workers, using “riot dispersal” means in one case where a crowd threw stones at them outside a UN facility.

Roland Friedrich, UNRWA director for the occupied West Bank, including east Jerusalem, said the raids were an “unacceptable violation of United Nations privileges and immunities,” and a “denial of the right to education for children and trainees.”