Sanctions Against Lebanon’s Bassil a ‘Message’ to Aoun

 File photo: President Michel Aoun and his son-in-law former Lebanese foreign minister Gebran Bassil. Reuters
File photo: President Michel Aoun and his son-in-law former Lebanese foreign minister Gebran Bassil. Reuters
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Sanctions Against Lebanon’s Bassil a ‘Message’ to Aoun

 File photo: President Michel Aoun and his son-in-law former Lebanese foreign minister Gebran Bassil. Reuters
File photo: President Michel Aoun and his son-in-law former Lebanese foreign minister Gebran Bassil. Reuters

US sanctions against the former foreign and energy minister, Gebran Bassil, could affect the Lebanese presidency and his Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), which has supporters in the United Sates, observers said.

They believe that the sanctions will have repercussions on Baabda Palace and FPM supporters in the US despite Bassil and several of his followers attempting to send positive signals to Washington by stressing their keenness to preserve a good relationship between the two sides.

“It is still too early to talk about the impact of the sanctions on the relations between the two countries,” sources familiar with the position of President Michel Aoun, who is Bassil’s father-in-law, told Asharq Al-Awsat Tuesday.

The sources recalled that Aoun has asked for documents proving the charges against Bassil and earlier the two former ministers, Ali Hassan Khalil and Youssef Fenianos.

“This request would be followed up through diplomatic channels,” the sources said, although there has been no such contact yet between the presidency and the US since the sanctions were imposed on the Lebanese figures.

The US Treasury Department said in September it had designated Fenianos and Hassan Khalil for engaging in corruption and leveraging their political power for financial gain.

Last week, the Treasury said it had targeted Bassil "for his role in corruption in Lebanon", alleging in particular that he "steered Lebanese government funds to individuals close to him through a group of front companies" as energy minister.

However, Lebanon’s former Ambassador to Washington Riad Tabbara said the sanctions against Bassil are part of a “message sent to President Michel Aoun, including a US pressure to speed up the formation of the next government.”

“So far, it is not clear what are the long-term objectives of these sanctions. But, if we look at recent events, we find that sanctions against Khalil and Fenianos led to the announcement of negotiations with Israel on the demarcation of maritime borders. It seems that the sanctions on Bassil aim to speed up the formation of the government,” the ambassador told Asharq Al-Awsat.

Tabbara said the US is keen on preventing Lebanon from collapsing, adding that FPM followers in the US would not be affected by the recent decision.

Global ambassador at PeaceTech Lab and director for Business Development Nizar Zakka stressed the need to separate between the sanctions and the Lebanese Presidency or the FPM.

He told Asharq Al-Awsat that further sanctions could be soon issued against other party leaders, including figures close to Washington.

Echoing the FPM’s position, MP Hikmat Deeb said the US sanctions would not affect the movement’s relationship with the American people and administration.

In remarks to the newspaper, Deeb said that Bassil is the only figure with whom the US administration held talks before imposing the sanctions.



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.