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Lebanon: Aoun Prioritizes Cabinet Formation Before New PM’s Appointment

Speaker Berri met with President Aoun on Wednesday. NNA
Speaker Berri met with President Aoun on Wednesday. NNA
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Lebanon: Aoun Prioritizes Cabinet Formation Before New PM’s Appointment

Speaker Berri met with President Aoun on Wednesday. NNA
Speaker Berri met with President Aoun on Wednesday. NNA

Lebanese Speaker Nabih Berri has proposed to President Michel Aoun the name of former Prime Minister Saad Hariri for the premiership, parliamentary sources told Asharq Al-Awsat.

The sources said that during their meeting at the Baabda Palace on Wednesday, Aoun was open to Berri’s suggestion, but the President has insisted on continuing talks with officials to reach consensus on the shape of the new government before announcing the date of binding parliamentary consultations to name the next PM.

The parliamentary sources said Thursday that Berri would spare no effort for a breakthrough in the cabinet formation.

“Berri held talks with Aoun out of his belief that Lebanon cannot rely on other countries to solve its own problems,” the sources said.

The international community has been repeatedly calling on the Lebanese officials to first help themselves if they wish to receive support to stop the current financial and economic collapse that culminated with the Aug. 4 explosion at the Port of Beirut.

The sources revealed that Berri's role is essential in staying in contact with Lebanon’s rival politicians.

“The Speaker considers that any breakthrough to the crisis begins with the parliamentary consultations to name a Prime Minister who forms a new cabinet,” the sources said.

This remains the only means to encourage French President Emmanuel Macron to return to Beirut early next month.

They said the international community, mainly the US, encourages the formation of an independent government, denying that Macron supports a national unity cabinet.

“Berri would wait until Sunday for Aoun to end his consultations. After Monday, the Speaker would have another say,” the sources said.

Asharq Al-Awsat learned that Berri is expected to meet Friday with head of the Free Patriotic Movement MP Gebran Bassil, who is Aoun’s son-in-law.

Reports said that Aoun asked Berri to sit down with Bassil to discuss the government formation, adding that the meeting could be attended by Hussein Khalil, the political aide to Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah, and the speaker’s advisor, Ali Hassan Khalil.

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Israeli Rights Group Accuses Prison Authority of Failing Palestinian Prisoners after Scabies Outbreak

Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir attends a discussion called on by the opposition on the release of the Israeli hostages held by Hamas, at the Knesset in Jerusalem, Israel, 18 November 2024. (EPA)
Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir attends a discussion called on by the opposition on the release of the Israeli hostages held by Hamas, at the Knesset in Jerusalem, Israel, 18 November 2024. (EPA)
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Israeli Rights Group Accuses Prison Authority of Failing Palestinian Prisoners after Scabies Outbreak

Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir attends a discussion called on by the opposition on the release of the Israeli hostages held by Hamas, at the Knesset in Jerusalem, Israel, 18 November 2024. (EPA)
Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir attends a discussion called on by the opposition on the release of the Israeli hostages held by Hamas, at the Knesset in Jerusalem, Israel, 18 November 2024. (EPA)

An Israeli rights group said Monday that more than a quarter of all Palestinian prisoners currently held by Israel had contracted scabies since an outbreak was identified in May, and accused the prison authority of improper care and prevention.

Physicians for Human Rights-Israel said that more than 2,800 prisoners had caught the rash-like infection, with more than 1,700 still actively infected. The outbreak was seen in five different detention facilities, the group said. It was citing figures it said came from the Israel Prison Service.

The group said it filed a legal petition calling on the prison service “to eradicate the scabies epidemic,” accusing the authorities of failing “to implement widely recognized medical interventions necessary to contain the outbreak.”

It said that it halted the legal proceedings after it received a commitment from the prison service to address the outbreak. The prison service said the court had cancelled the petition because the prisons had shown they were dealing with the outbreak in a “systematic and thorough” way.

Nadav Davidovich, an Israeli public health expert who wrote a medical analysis for the group’s court proceedings, said the outbreak was a result of overcrowding in prisons and apparent neglect from prison authorities. He said such outbreaks could be prevented if prisoners were held “in more reasonable conditions.” If the first infections were treated as needed, such an outbreak could have been avoided, he said.

Physicians for Human Rights-Israel also said that the Israel Prison Service had cited scabies as a reason for postponing lawyers' visits and court appearances for prisoners. It said those steps “violate prisoners’ rights and serve as punitive measures rather than public health responses.”

Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who oversees the prisons, has boasted about hardening conditions to the bare minimum required by law.