Rai: My Call For Neutrality Is Not Against Hezbollah

 Rai met Thursday with German Ambassador to Lebanon (NNA)
Rai met Thursday with German Ambassador to Lebanon (NNA)
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Rai: My Call For Neutrality Is Not Against Hezbollah

 Rai met Thursday with German Ambassador to Lebanon (NNA)
Rai met Thursday with German Ambassador to Lebanon (NNA)

Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai reiterated on Thursday his call to implement a policy of neutrality and keep Lebanon away from "western or eastern alliances.”

After meeting with a delegation of Muslim and Christian religious figures in Dimane, the Patriarch said he understands that some leaders cannot take an official position regarding neutrality, noting that he had received responses regarding this issue from all parties expect Hezbollah, which has not revealed an official position yet.

Rai also met with the German Ambassador to Lebanon, Andreas Kindl, and the two discussed bilateral relations and the support Germany is providing to Lebanon.

The Patriarch said that Lebanon was neutral in the past, however, Israel and other states were not fond of the situation.

“My call for neutrality is not against Hezbollah, rather, it is in the interest of all Lebanese,” he stressed.

Rai’s call for neutrality came as efforts continue to form a new government.

In this regard, member of the Strong Republic (Lebanese Forces) parliamentary bloc MP Wehbe Katisha expressed his surprise that some parties are still obstructing the birth of a new government, particularly under the current difficult circumstances the country is going through.

He said Prime Minister-designate Mustapha Adib should be offered an “absolute license” to form his new government.

Meanwhile, member of the Strong Lebanon (Free Patriotic Movement) parliamentary bloc MP Ibrahim Kanaan denied on Thursday reports published by some media outlets saying that MP Alain Aoun and himself had opposed an attempt by FPM leader MP Gebran Bassil to convince the bloc to “demand a ministerial share in the new cabinet.”

Other political forces demanded the formation of a small government of specialists and experts.

Resigned deputy Shamel Roukoz hoped that the new government be given exceptional authority for a specific period to introduce necessary reforms.



Evidence of Ongoing 'Crimes Against Humanity' in Darfur, Says ICC Deputy Prosecutor

A boy sits atop a hill overlooking a refugee camp near the Chad-Sudan border, November 9, 2023. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig/File Photo
A boy sits atop a hill overlooking a refugee camp near the Chad-Sudan border, November 9, 2023. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig/File Photo
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Evidence of Ongoing 'Crimes Against Humanity' in Darfur, Says ICC Deputy Prosecutor

A boy sits atop a hill overlooking a refugee camp near the Chad-Sudan border, November 9, 2023. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig/File Photo
A boy sits atop a hill overlooking a refugee camp near the Chad-Sudan border, November 9, 2023. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig/File Photo

There are "reasonable grounds to believe that war crimes and crimes against humanity" are being committed in war-ravaged Sudan's western Darfur region, the deputy prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) said.

Outlining her office's probe of the devastating conflict which has raged since 2023, Nazhat Shameem Khan told the UN Security Council that it was "difficult to find appropriate words to describe the depth of suffering in Darfur," AFP reported.

"On the basis of our independent investigations, the position of our office is clear. We have reasonable grounds to believe that war crimes and crimes against humanity, have been and are continuing to be committed in Darfur," she said.

The prosecutor's office focused its probe on crimes committed in West Darfur, Khan said, interviewing victims who fled to neighboring Chad.

She detailed an "intolerable" humanitarian situation, with apparent targeting of hospitals and humanitarian convoys, while warning that "famine is escalating" as aid is unable to reach "those in dire need."

"People are being deprived of water and food. Rape and sexual violence are being weaponized," Khan said, adding that abductions for ransom had become "common practice."

"And yet we should not be under any illusion, things can still get worse."

The Security Council referred the situation in Darfur to the ICC in 2005, with some 300,000 people killed during conflict in the region in the 2000s.

In 2023, the ICC opened a fresh probe into war crimes in Darfur after a new conflict erupted between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

The RSF's predecessor, the Janjaweed militia, was accused of genocide two decades ago in the vast western region.

ICC judges are expected to deliver their first decision on crimes committed in Darfur two decades ago in the case of Ali Mohamed Ali Abd-Al-Rahman, known as Ali Kosheib, after the trial ended in 2024.

"I wish to be clear to those on the ground in Darfur now, to those who are inflicting unimaginable atrocities on its population -- they may feel a sense of impunity at this moment, as Ali Kosheib may have felt in the past," said Khan.

"But we are working intensively to ensure that the Ali Kosheib trial represents only the first of many in relation to this situation at the International Criminal Court," she added.