Tunisia’s Chahed Will Reportedly Replace Mechichi

FILE - Former Tunisian Prime Minister Youssef Chahed addresses the parliament on the country's anti-corruption fight on July 20, 2017, in Tunis. AFP
FILE - Former Tunisian Prime Minister Youssef Chahed addresses the parliament on the country's anti-corruption fight on July 20, 2017, in Tunis. AFP
TT

Tunisia’s Chahed Will Reportedly Replace Mechichi

FILE - Former Tunisian Prime Minister Youssef Chahed addresses the parliament on the country's anti-corruption fight on July 20, 2017, in Tunis. AFP
FILE - Former Tunisian Prime Minister Youssef Chahed addresses the parliament on the country's anti-corruption fight on July 20, 2017, in Tunis. AFP

Former Tunisian Prime Minister Youssef Chahed, head of the Long Live Tunisia movement, is a candidate to replace PM Hichem Mechichi, according to leaks made by some opposition parties.

Chahed will likely be named prime minister after the Islamist Ennahda Movement pressured Mechichi to implement a cabinet reshuffle, which President Kais Saeid strongly opposes.

Political sources agree that Chahed is supported by the President, and Ennahda does not mind naming him as PM, especially that it supported him in 2017 and 2018 following demands to oust him.

Political parties are considering several possible scenarios to solve the current crisis between the president, prime minister, and speaker.

Some are suggesting removing Mechichi from office, a demand supported by Saeid as a condition to launch political dialogue.

Leading Ennahda member Rafik Abdel Salam accused the president on Tuesday of willingly fabricating the political and constitutional crisis.

Abdel Salam warned that some people want to use the president as a tool to fight their battles by proxy and eliminate their opponents through coups and military trials.

Chahed has urged political parties to commit to a truce, especially since the government is not politically supported, and the parliament is ravaged by crises, noting that it will lead to solving the constitutional and political crisis.

In a related development, MP of the Democratic Bloc Hichem al-Ajbouni accused Ennahda of escalating the crisis with the President by supporting the prime minister, under the pretext of preserving government stability.

During a radio interview, Ajbouni said the PM yielded to the blackmail of Ennahda and its allies through recent appointments in the Ministry of Interior.



Berri to Asharq Al-Awsat: Resolution 1701 Only Tangible Proposal to End Lebanon Conflict

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and US envoy Amos Hochstein in Beirut. (AFP file)
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and US envoy Amos Hochstein in Beirut. (AFP file)
TT

Berri to Asharq Al-Awsat: Resolution 1701 Only Tangible Proposal to End Lebanon Conflict

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and US envoy Amos Hochstein in Beirut. (AFP file)
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and US envoy Amos Hochstein in Beirut. (AFP file)

Politicians in Beirut said they have not received any credible information about Washington resuming its mediation efforts towards reaching a ceasefire in Lebanon despite reports to the contrary.

Efforts came to a halt after US envoy Amos Hochstein’s last visit to Beirut three weeks ago.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri dismissed the reports as media fodder, saying nothing official has been received.

Lebanon is awaiting tangible proposals on which it can build its position, he told Asharq Al-Awsat.

The only credible proposal on the table is United Nations Security Council resolution 1701, whose articles must be implemented in full by Lebanon and Israel, “not just Lebanon alone,” he stressed.

Resolution 1701 was issued to end the 2006 July war between Hezbollah and Israel and calls for removing all weapons from southern Lebanon and that the only armed presence there be restricted to the army and UN peacekeepers.

Western diplomatic sources in Beirut told Asharq Al-Awsat that Berri opposes one of the most important articles of the proposed solution to end the current conflict between Hezbollah and Israel.

He is opposed to the German and British participation in the proposed mechanism to monitor the implementation of resolution 1701. The other participants are the United States and France.

Other sources said Berri is opposed to the mechanism itself since one is already available and it is embodied in the UN peacekeepers, whom the US and France can join.

The sources revealed that the solution to the conflict has a foreign and internal aspect. The foreign one includes Israel, the US and Russia and seeks guarantees that would prevent Hezbollah from rearming itself. The second covers Lebanese guarantees on the implementation of resolution 1701.

Berri refused to comment on the media reports, but told Asharq Al-Awsat that this was the first time that discussions are being held about guarantees.

He added that “Israel is now in crisis because it has failed to achieve its military objectives, so it has resorted to more killing and destruction undeterred.”

He highlighted the “steadfastness of the UN peacekeepers in the South who have refused to leave their positions despite the repeated Israeli attacks.”