Hariri Accuses Hezbollah of Prolonging Lebanese Govt Crisis

Lebanese Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri. (NNA)
Lebanese Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri. (NNA)
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Hariri Accuses Hezbollah of Prolonging Lebanese Govt Crisis

Lebanese Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri. (NNA)
Lebanese Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri. (NNA)

Lebanese-Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri accused on Thursday the Hezbollah party of prolonging the government formation crisis.

The PM was refuting allegations by Hezbollah deputy chief Naim Qassem and the party’s al-Akhbar newspaper that alleged he was waiting for a signal from foreign powers to form the cabinet.

Denying the claims, Hariri in a statement on Thursday said the party was “maneuvering to prolong the vacuum as it waits on Iran” and its negotiations with the United States.

Moreover, he denied that President Michel Aoun had informed him through General Security chief Abbas Ibrahim that he would only name five ministers, as well as the Tashnag minister, in the new 18-member cabinet.

The president had also insisted that he obtain the interior portfolio, while his son-in-law MP Gebran Bassil, head of the Free Patriotic Movement that was founded by Aoun, would not grant the government his vote of confidence.

Hariri rejected the proposal, in what was deemed a surprise move.

The PM’s office was quick to deny the claims, saying it did not receive any official comment from Aoun in this regard, meaning those leaking these reports are only seeking to shift blame in the crisis from the president and Bassil to Hariri.

“As opposed to Hezbollah, which always waits for instructions from Iran before making any move, Hariri is not waiting to please any foreign side in the government formation process,” said the statement.

Hariri is only awaiting Aoun’s approval over the formation of a government of experts, in line with the amendments that the PM had openly proposed on February 14, and not through suspicious media leaks.

“Hezbollah is maneuvering to prolong the government vacuum as it waits for Iran to begin its negotiations with the new American administration, while using Lebanon’s stability as a bargaining chip,” continued the statement.

If the FPM was truly seeking to withhold confidence from the government, then why is Aoun insisting on obtaining a third of its ministers, it remarked.

Furthermore, he noted that Aoun had during the term of his predecessor, Michel Suleiman, rejected the proposal that the president name any minister in government if he did not boast a parliamentary bloc that could support him.

The presidency and Hezbollah have yet to respond to Hariri’s rebuttal.

Bassil, for his part, issued a statement saying that the government is being held hostage by Hariri, who is not prepared to form it due to foreign factors.

The FPM, he continued, only has one demand and that is to respect the constitution.

Addressing the people, he said: “Your government is being held hostage and it can only be regained by appeasing foreign powers or through an internal revolution.”



Hamas Hands Over Bodies of Four Gaza Hostages

Coffins are placed on stage during the handover of deceased hostages Oded Lifschitz, Shiri Bibas and her two children Kfir and Ariel Bibas, seized during the deadly October 7, 2023 attack, to the Red Cross, as part of a ceasefire and hostages-prisoners swap deal between Hamas and Israel, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, February 20, 2025. REUTERS/Ramadan Abed
Coffins are placed on stage during the handover of deceased hostages Oded Lifschitz, Shiri Bibas and her two children Kfir and Ariel Bibas, seized during the deadly October 7, 2023 attack, to the Red Cross, as part of a ceasefire and hostages-prisoners swap deal between Hamas and Israel, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, February 20, 2025. REUTERS/Ramadan Abed
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Hamas Hands Over Bodies of Four Gaza Hostages

Coffins are placed on stage during the handover of deceased hostages Oded Lifschitz, Shiri Bibas and her two children Kfir and Ariel Bibas, seized during the deadly October 7, 2023 attack, to the Red Cross, as part of a ceasefire and hostages-prisoners swap deal between Hamas and Israel, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, February 20, 2025. REUTERS/Ramadan Abed
Coffins are placed on stage during the handover of deceased hostages Oded Lifschitz, Shiri Bibas and her two children Kfir and Ariel Bibas, seized during the deadly October 7, 2023 attack, to the Red Cross, as part of a ceasefire and hostages-prisoners swap deal between Hamas and Israel, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, February 20, 2025. REUTERS/Ramadan Abed

Hamas handed over the bodies on Thursday of Israeli infant Kfir Bibas and his four-year-old brother Ariel, the two youngest captives taken in the October 7, 2023 attack.
The Palestinian group released the bodies of the two boys and their mother Shiri Bibas, along with that of a fourth hostage, Oded Lifschitz, under the Gaza ceasefire agreement reached last month with the backing of the United States and the mediation of Qatar and Egypt.

Red Cross vehicles drove away from the handover site in the Gaza Strip with four black coffins that had been placed on a stage. Each of the caskets had a small picture of the hostages.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a brief video statement that Thursday would be "a very difficult day for the state of Israel. An upsetting day, a day of grief."

Kfir Bibas was nine months old when the Bibas family, including their father Yarden, was abducted at Kibbutz Nir Oz, one of a string of communities near Gaza that were overrun by Hamas-led attackers from Gaza on October 7.
Hamas said in November 2023 that the boys and their mother had been killed in an Israeli airstrike but their deaths were never confirmed by Israeli authorities and even at the last minute, some refused to accept they were dead.

At the handover site, a large poster was hung up, depicting Netanyahu as a vampire standing over images of the four hostages. "The War Criminal Netanyahu & His Nazi Army Killed Them with Missiles from Zionist Warplanes," the poster read.
Following the handover, the remains will be moved into coffins draped with the Israeli flag and an army rabbi will provide over a short ceremony. They will then be taken into Israel to the national forensic institute to be identified, a process that could take a few hours or even a few days.
Only after identification will there be a formal announcement of their deaths and a funeral.
The handover marks the first return of dead bodies during the current agreement and Israel is not expected to confirm their identities until full DNA checks have been completed.
Despite accusations on both sides of ceasefire breaches, the fragile agreement that took effect on January 19 has held up since the first in a series of exchanges of hostages in Gaza for Palestinian prisoners and detainees held by Israel.