Lebanon's Hariri Presents New Government Line-up after Deadlock

Lebanese PM-designate Saad Hariri meets President Michel Aoun at the presidential palace on Wednesday. (Dalati & Nohra)
Lebanese PM-designate Saad Hariri meets President Michel Aoun at the presidential palace on Wednesday. (Dalati & Nohra)
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Lebanon's Hariri Presents New Government Line-up after Deadlock

Lebanese PM-designate Saad Hariri meets President Michel Aoun at the presidential palace on Wednesday. (Dalati & Nohra)
Lebanese PM-designate Saad Hariri meets President Michel Aoun at the presidential palace on Wednesday. (Dalati & Nohra)

Lebanon’s Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri gave President Michel Aoun a line-up for a new cabinet on Wednesday after months of wrangling blocked a French plan to pull the country from financial crisis.

Without a credible government, there will be no bailout to save Lebanon, French President Emmanuel Macron has warned ahead of his visit to Beirut later this month.

Former colonial ruler France, spearheading foreign aid efforts, had sought to rally Lebanon’s leaders but grew frustrated as it got mired in fractious sectarian politics.

Lebanese politicians have failed to agree over portfolios, let alone enact reforms, even as the country hurtles towards what UN agencies have warned will be a “social catastrophe”.

Hariri, who was named premier for a fourth time in October, said the president would examine his list of 18 “non-partisan, expert” ministers and that the “atmosphere was positive”. Aoun’s office said the two had agreed at Wednesday’s meeting to try to bridge the gap between their proposals.

It was the first move towards attempting to break the logjam after weeks of inaction, as foreign reserves used to subsidize basic goods dwindle, triggering alarm.

Lebanon’s worst crisis since its 1975-1990 civil war has impoverished half the population and crashed the currency.

A senior Lebanese political source said there had been renewed pressure from abroad for the politicians to break the deadlock but it remained unclear if that would succeed.

The outgoing government quit after a massive explosion at Beirut port in August, which killed more than 200 people and devastated swathes of the capital.



Iraq's Kurdish Oil Exports Restart is Not Imminent

An oil field in Iraqi Kurdistan. Photo: Kurdistan government media/AFP
An oil field in Iraqi Kurdistan. Photo: Kurdistan government media/AFP
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Iraq's Kurdish Oil Exports Restart is Not Imminent

An oil field in Iraqi Kurdistan. Photo: Kurdistan government media/AFP
An oil field in Iraqi Kurdistan. Photo: Kurdistan government media/AFP

A restart of Iraq's Kurdish oil exports is not imminent, sources close to the matter said on Friday, despite Iraq's federal government saying on Thursday that shipments would resume immediately.

Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government have been in negotiations since February to end a stand-off that has halted flows from the north of the country to Türkiye's port of Ceyhan. The KRG was producing about 435,000 barrels per day (bpd) before the pipeline closure in March 2023, Reuters reported.

On Thursday the federal government said that Iraqi Kurdistan would resume oil exports immediately through the pipeline to Türkiye's despite drone attacks that have shut down half of the region's output.

But on Friday a source at APIKUR, a group of oil companies working in Kurdistan, said that a restart depended on the receipt of written agreements. Another at KAR Group, which operates the pipeline, said that no preparations had been made for a restart.

Baghdad and the companies have not yet agreed how to restart the exports, a KRG government source said, while a source at Türkiye's Ceyhan said there was also no preparation at the terminal for a restart of flows.

On Thursday, a statement from KRG Prime Minister Masrour Barzani said the government had approved a joint understanding with the federal government and it was awaiting financial details.

Similar agreements in the past failed to secure a resumption in exports and it remains unclear if this deal will succeed.

Oil companies working in Kurdistan have previously demanded that their production-sharing contracts should remain unchanged and their debts of nearly $1 billion be settled under any agreement.

Oilfields in Iraqi Kurdistan have been attacked by drones this week, with officials pointing to Iran-backed militias as the likely source of the attacks, although no group has claimed responsibility.

They are the first such attacks on oilfields in the region and coincide with the first attacks in seven months on shipping in the Red Sea by Iran-aligned Houthi militants in Yemen.

On Thursday a strike hit an oilfield operated by Norway's DNO in Tawke, the region's counter-terrorism service said.

It was the week's second strike on a site operated by DNO, which operates the Tawke and Peshkabour oilfields in the Zakho area that borders Türkiye.

No casualties have been reported, but oil output in the region has been cut by between 140,000 bpd and 150,000 bpd, two energy officials said.