Lebanon: Diab Rejects Aoun’s Call For Cabinet Session, Prioritizes Govt Formation

Prime Minister Hassan Diab meets with President Michel Aoun at the presidential palace in Baabda, Lebanon Janaury 21, 2020. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
Prime Minister Hassan Diab meets with President Michel Aoun at the presidential palace in Baabda, Lebanon Janaury 21, 2020. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
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Lebanon: Diab Rejects Aoun’s Call For Cabinet Session, Prioritizes Govt Formation

Prime Minister Hassan Diab meets with President Michel Aoun at the presidential palace in Baabda, Lebanon Janaury 21, 2020. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
Prime Minister Hassan Diab meets with President Michel Aoun at the presidential palace in Baabda, Lebanon Janaury 21, 2020. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir

A silent crisis has emerged between Lebanon's President Michel Aoun and caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab, due to the latter’s refusal to respond to the president’s insistence on the holding of a cabinet session.

Ministerial sources well-informed of the matter told Asharq Al-Awsat that Diab - who moved immediately to his home in Talat al-Khayyat in Beirut following his resignation – attends his office in the Grand Serail only periodically and insists not to convene the Council of Ministers, but presides over ministerial committee meetings to manage the country’s affairs “within very narrow limits.”

The sources added that Diab has been taking lately unprecedented security measures as he moves from his home to the Serail, saying that his refusal to meet Aoun’s demand was based on several considerations, including the “unfounded allegations against him in the port explosion case”.

Moreover, the caretaker prime minister sees that he was forced to resign after Aoun dismissed the government in response to the wishes of his political heir, head of the Free Patriotic Movement, MP Gebran Bassil.

According to the sources, Diab wants the new government to be formed immediately and fears the negative repercussions of hindering its birth, amid rumors that his caretaking role would last until the end of Aoun’s tenure.

Thus, his compliance with Aoun’s desire to hold a cabinet session will push him into a political clash with the Sunni street, which will see his consent as an agreement with the president to obstruct the formation of the new government.

Also, the sources noted that Diab would not provide the political cover for the adoption by the Cabinet of an inflated budget that is intended to divert attention from the high deficit in return for the decrease in imports due to the lack of a reform plan.



UNDP Plans for $1.3Bln in Help for Syria

People wait their turn in a queue outside an ATM in Damascus on April 16, 2025. (Photo by LOUAI BESHARA / AFP)
People wait their turn in a queue outside an ATM in Damascus on April 16, 2025. (Photo by LOUAI BESHARA / AFP)
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UNDP Plans for $1.3Bln in Help for Syria

People wait their turn in a queue outside an ATM in Damascus on April 16, 2025. (Photo by LOUAI BESHARA / AFP)
People wait their turn in a queue outside an ATM in Damascus on April 16, 2025. (Photo by LOUAI BESHARA / AFP)

The United Nations Development Program is hoping to deliver $1.3 billion over three years to support war-ravaged Syria, including by rebuilding infrastructure and backing digital start-ups, its assistant secretary-general told Reuters.
Abdallah Dardari told Reuters in Damascus that investing in Syria - hit hard by 14 years of conflict that ended when former leader Bashar al-Assad was ousted by a rebel offensive in December and fled the country - was seen as a "global public good."
"Our total plan for Syria over three years is $1.3 billion. This is not just a number, but a comprehensive strategy covering all support aspects," Dardari said. He said that help could include introducing artificial intelligence, setting up social protection programs and rebuilding infrastructure.
He said it would be crucial to mobilize funds from different sources including the World Bank and International Monetary Fund as well as other countries in the region.
Since Assad was toppled last year after a nearly 14-year civil war, his successors have called on the international community to lift sanctions imposed against the country during his rule.
So far, most of those sanctions remain in place, with the United States and other Western countries saying the new authorities still need to demonstrate a commitment to peaceful and inclusive rule.
Syria has $563 million in Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) at the IMF. But using the funds requires approval by IMF members holding 85% of the total votes, giving the United States, with 16.5% of the votes, an effective veto.
Syria's finance minister, central bank governor and foreign minister are planning on attending the spring meetings next week, Reuters reported earlier this month.
It would be the first visit to the meetings by a high-level Syrian government delegation in at least two decades, and the first high-level visit by Syria's new authorities to the US Assad's fall.
Washington has handed Syria a list of conditions which, if fulfilled, could lead to some sanctions relief, Reuters reported last month. Dardari said that sanctions remained "a considerable obstacle" to Syria's growth trajectory.
"Syria needs tens of billions of dollars in investments and in technical assistance and so on, and that cannot happen with such heavy sanctions imposed on the country," he said, calling for sanctions "to be lifted in a comprehensive manner." Dardari said UNDP had secured a sanctions exemption from the US Treasury to mobilize up to $50 million to repair the Deir Ali power plant south of Damascus.
Three sources familiar with the issue told Reuters the World Bank is exploring hundreds of millions of dollars in grants to improve Syria's electricity grid and support the public sector.
Syria's central bank governor Abdelkader Husrieh told Reuters that his country wanted to be compliant with global financial standards but that sanctions were still "blocking the economy from going forward".
"We want to be part of the international financial system and hope that the international community will help us to remove any obstacle to this integration," he said.