Rai Accuses Lebanese Leaders of ‘Starving the People’

Rai during Sunday mass. (NNA)
Rai during Sunday mass. (NNA)
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Rai Accuses Lebanese Leaders of ‘Starving the People’

Rai during Sunday mass. (NNA)
Rai during Sunday mass. (NNA)

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rai again lashed out at Lebanon’s political leaders for failing to form a new cabinet, accusing them of sharing a common interest in obstructing any political agreement to resolve the deepening crisis and of starving the Lebanese people.

He said the leaders have proven to everyone in Lebanon and the world that they do not want to form a new government.

“They have a common interest, which is obstruction and bringing the people to their knees for no reason, by starving, humiliating and impoverishing them and stripping hope from their hearts,” Rai said during a Mass service held at Bkirki on Sunday.

The patriarch stressed that the formation of a new government is a top priority.

“A fully empowered government is the key to resolving the rest of the basic issues, whether in terms of reforms or political, security or economic and social issues,” he explained.

Rai said the government is required to strengthen its capacity and move away from any tutelage that limits aid from donor countries, and to work on returning looted funds and expediting the implementation of the reform plan that would help the people.

“Without a government, divisions would deepen and state authority that safeguards Lebanon would be undermined,” he warned.

Addressing officials, he said: “Positive work demands the formation of a government for the sake of the people. You should be ashamed before the Arab and international communities and before Arab and foreign visitors.”

He also called for a “serious, not a selective, forensic audit, which cannot take place without the formation of a government.”

He made his remarks in reference to President Michel Aoun who last week criticized the central bank’s delay in launching the audit. His comments had sparked political debate with several officials echoing Rai’s remarks that a government needed to be formed first so that it can oversee the audit.

“Officials concerned with the government formation should cease their obstruction - through fabricating constitutional norms, fictitious privileges and pointless conditions for the sake of covering the main hurdle, which is that some sides have offered Lebanon as a hostage to the regional/international conflict,” Rai remarked.



US to Pull Some Personnel from the Middle East amid Rising Tensions with Iran

The US embassy in Baghdad, Iraq. (Reuters file)
The US embassy in Baghdad, Iraq. (Reuters file)
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US to Pull Some Personnel from the Middle East amid Rising Tensions with Iran

The US embassy in Baghdad, Iraq. (Reuters file)
The US embassy in Baghdad, Iraq. (Reuters file)

US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday US personnel were being moved out of the Middle East because "it could be a dangerous place," adding that the United States would not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon.

Reuters reported earlier on Wednesday that the US is preparing a partial evacuation of its Iraqi embassy and will allow military dependents to leave locations around the Middle East due to heightened security risks in the region, according to US and Iraqi sources.

The four US and two Iraqi sources did not say what security risks had prompted the decision and reports of the potential evacuation pushed up oil prices by more than 4%.

The State Department updated its worldwide travel advisory on Wednesday evening to reflect the latest US posture. “On June 11, the Department of State ordered the departure of non-emergency US government personnel due to heightened regional tensions,” the advisory said.

The decision by the US to evacuate some personnel comes at a volatile moment in the region. Trump's efforts to reach a nuclear deal with Iran appear to be deadlocked and US intelligence indicates that Israel has been making preparations for a strike against Iran's nuclear facilities.

"They are being moved out because it could be a dangerous place, and we'll see what happens," Trump told reporters. "We've given notice to move out."

Asked whether anything can be done to lower the temperature in the region, Trump said: "They can't have a nuclear weapon. Very simple, they can't have a nuclear weapon."

Trump has repeatedly threatened to strike Iran if stuttering talks over its nuclear program fail and in an interview released earlier on Wednesday said he was growing less confident that Tehran would agree to stop enriching uranium, a key American demand.

Iranian Defense Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh also said on Wednesday that if Iran was subjected to strikes it would retaliate by hitting US bases in the region.

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has authorized the voluntary departure of military dependents from locations across the Middle East, a US official said.

"The State Department is set to have an ordered departure for (the) US embassy in Baghdad. The intent is to do it through commercial means, but the US military is standing by if help is requested," a third US official said.

Iraq's state news agency cited a government source as saying Baghdad had not recorded any security indication that called for an evacuation.

Another US official said that there was no change in operations at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, the largest US military base in the Middle East and that no evacuation order had been issued for employees or families linked to the US embassy in Qatar, which was operating as usual.