Lebanon’s Hariri to Begin Consultations by Meeting With Former Premiers

Lebanon’s Hariri to Begin Consultations by Meeting With Former Premiers
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Lebanon’s Hariri to Begin Consultations by Meeting With Former Premiers

Lebanon’s Hariri to Begin Consultations by Meeting With Former Premiers

A leading source in the Future Bloc said it was too early to deal with former Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri's announcement on him being a possible candidate to head a new government by counting the votes he would receive in the upcoming parliamentary consultations.

On Oct. 15, President Michel Aoun is scheduled to hold parliamentary consultations to assign a figure to form a new government.

The source told Asharq Al-Awsat that Hariri’s final decision to run for the post relied on the willingness of the parliamentary blocs he would consult with to provide political and economic guarantees.

He affirmed that without these guarantees, the French initiative to stem Lebanon’s economic collapse would falter.

Asharq Al-Awsat has learned that Hariri will begin his consultations this weekend, as he will meet on Sunday with former premiers Najib Mikati, Fouad Siniora, and Tamam Salam, and consultations will focus on the post-candidacy phase.

He will also consult with representatives of the Future bloc, and then start consultations early next week with the parliamentary blocs.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has welcomed Hariri’s decision, so did Head of the Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) Walid Jumblatt, who seems to be willing to overcome the slight differences and support his candidacy.

Hezbollah, for its part, is studying its position and aims at avoiding any difference with its ally, Berri’s Amal Movement.

The source also pointed out that the financial guarantees demanded by Hariri were limited to the parliamentary blocs’ adoption of the economic agenda presented by French President Emmanuel Macron and which he had approved during their meeting at the Pine Palace.

Political guarantees have become known, he added, explaining that they were based on the formation of a technocrat government for a six-month transitional period to implement the economic reform program.



Israeli Bombardment Kills 29 People in Gaza, Rockets Fired into Israel

Palestinians inspect the rubble of a destroyed building following an Israeli airstrike in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, 04 October 2024. (EPA)
Palestinians inspect the rubble of a destroyed building following an Israeli airstrike in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, 04 October 2024. (EPA)
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Israeli Bombardment Kills 29 People in Gaza, Rockets Fired into Israel

Palestinians inspect the rubble of a destroyed building following an Israeli airstrike in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, 04 October 2024. (EPA)
Palestinians inspect the rubble of a destroyed building following an Israeli airstrike in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, 04 October 2024. (EPA)

Israeli military strikes across the Gaza Strip killed at least 29 Palestinians on Friday, medics said, and sirens blared in southern Israel in response to renewed rocket fire from fighters in the Palestinian enclave.

The new rocket salvoes indicated that Hamas-led armed factions in Gaza are still able to fire projectiles into Israel despite a year-long Israeli aerial and ground offensive that has turned wide areas of the enclave into wasteland.

On Friday, the Israeli military said sirens sounded in southern Israel for the first time in around two months.

"Almost a year after Oct. 7, Hamas is still threatening our civilians with their terrorism and we will continue operating against them," it added, referring to the anniversary of Hamas' cross-border attack that touched off the Gaza war.

In Gaza City in north Gaza, Palestinian health officials said one Israeli aerial strike on a house killed at least seven people. Four people including two women and a baby were killed in the bombing of a home in the southern city of Khan Younis.

The rest were killed in airstrikes on several areas across the densely populated coastal enclave. Residents said Israeli forces operating in Gaza City's Zeitoun suburb and in Rafah, near the southern border with Egypt, blew up clusters of homes.

Israel's military says Hamas combatants use crowded, built-up residential neighborhoods as cover. Hamas denies this.

Israel media, reporting on the rocket fire, said one rocket was intercepted by air defense and another crashed in an open area. There were no reports of casualties or notable damage.

Palestinians in Gaza will mark the first anniversary of the war next week with little hope of an end to the fighting in the foreseeable future, even as Israel pursues a new ground incursion into Lebanon against Hamas' major Iranian-backed ally Hezbollah.

Hezbollah began firing rockets into northern Israel almost a year ago in support of Hamas after the Palestinian movement staged the deadliest assault in Israel's history on Oct. 7, 2023.

The attack, in which Israel says 1,200 people were killed and over 250 taken hostage, ignited the war that has devastated Gaza, displacing most of its 2.3 million population and killing over 41,800 people, according to Gaza health authorities.

International diplomacy led by the United States has so far failed to clinch a ceasefire deal in Gaza. Hamas wants an agreement that ends the war while Israel says fighting can only end when Hamas is eradicated.