Lebanon: Berri Criticizes Aoun, Calls for Forming Cabinet Without Veto Power

FILE PHOTO: Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri is seen at the presidential palace in Baabda, Lebanon, November 6, 2017. Dalati Nohra/Handout via REUTERS
FILE PHOTO: Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri is seen at the presidential palace in Baabda, Lebanon, November 6, 2017. Dalati Nohra/Handout via REUTERS
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Lebanon: Berri Criticizes Aoun, Calls for Forming Cabinet Without Veto Power

FILE PHOTO: Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri is seen at the presidential palace in Baabda, Lebanon, November 6, 2017. Dalati Nohra/Handout via REUTERS
FILE PHOTO: Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri is seen at the presidential palace in Baabda, Lebanon, November 6, 2017. Dalati Nohra/Handout via REUTERS

Lebanon’s Parliament Speaker, Nabih Berri, criticized President Michel Aoun over the government deadlock and called for forming a new cabinet in which the president has no veto power.

Berri also lashed at Aoun’s son-in-law and the head of the Free Patriotic Movement, MP Gebran Bassil, without naming him, denouncing his threats to withdraw from Parliament.

“For whose benefit is the threat of resignation from Parliament?” Berri asked.

He added: “We will not be false witnesses to the mass execution of the Lebanese people.” The speaker was referring to earlier comments made by Bassil, who hinted that his bloc might withdraw from Parliament.

In a televised speech on the 43rd anniversary of the disappearance of the founder of Amal Movement, Imam Musa al-Sadr, Berri said: “Fear and anxiety this time over Lebanon are from the inside and not from the outside.”

“We are facing an attempt to hijack Lebanon and bring it down from within,” he warned.

He also called for speeding up the formation of the government, which should focus on addressing the fuel crisis, reviving the judiciary and security agencies to combat corruption, and holding the parliamentary elections on time.

Berri went on to say that a new government should be formed without a blocking third, referring to Aoun’s reported insistence on having a share in the cabinet that guarantees his allies’ right to veto ministerial decisions, despite the Presidential Palace’s denial.

The speaker also spoke of the Beirut port explosion, saying: “We were the first to extend a helping hand to the families of the martyrs, and we affirmed that there is no immunity that covers any person involved” in the Aug. 2020 blast.

He added: “The judicial investigator is required to implement the laws, starting with the Constitution.”



Heavy Rains Flood Khartoum Streets, Exposing Decomposed Bodies

A resident attempts to drain floodwaters outside home in Omdurman (Asharq Al-Awsat)
A resident attempts to drain floodwaters outside home in Omdurman (Asharq Al-Awsat)
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Heavy Rains Flood Khartoum Streets, Exposing Decomposed Bodies

A resident attempts to drain floodwaters outside home in Omdurman (Asharq Al-Awsat)
A resident attempts to drain floodwaters outside home in Omdurman (Asharq Al-Awsat)

Torrential rains battered several parts of Sudan’s Khartoum state this week, flooding residential neighborhoods and streets, disrupting movement, and sweeping away war debris, including decomposed corpses believed to belong to paramilitary fighters.

The rainfall began as sanitation workers were carrying out maintenance on stormwater drains. But before completing their task, the downpour caught them off guard, forcing them to begin draining the water with basic tools already in use.

Local authorities said residents in the East Nile district reported seeing decomposed bodies swept into drainage canals. Officials suspect the corpses may be those of fighters from the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which controlled swathes of the capital during its year-long war with the Sudanese army.

The RSF had held large parts of Khartoum since conflict erupted on April 15, 2023. But by March this year, the army claimed to have regained full control of the city. Since then, thousands of displaced families have returned home, according to state authorities, with more returning each day.

This year’s rainy season arrives amid the devastation of war, which has crippled already fragile infrastructure, particularly flood drainage systems. Even before the conflict, seasonal rains often caused widespread destruction in Khartoum, damaging homes and public facilities and resulting in casualties.

Despite extensive water pooling in open areas, Sudan’s Civil Defense Authority reported no fatalities or property losses. “Water was drained naturally, without any intervention from Civil Defense teams,” said Major General Qureshi, deputy director of emergency operations, in remarks to Asharq Al-Awsat.

Qureshi added that his teams remain on high alert, as a precaution, although Nile water levels remain stable.

Residents attempted to clear water from their homes by removing weeds and waste blocking drainage channels.

“During the RSF's control of the city, we tried to dig small trenches to divert the rainwater toward the main drains,” said resident Mohamed Elias. “But the blocked drains caused water to stagnate for months, leading to insect infestations and disease.”

Although thousands have returned to Khartoum, the national government has not fully re-established itself in the capital, which it fled in favor of Port Sudan, a Red Sea city now serving as a temporary seat of power. Khartoum’s governor, Ahmed Othman, previously told Asharq Al-Awsat that the government’s return to the capital would be gradual.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said over one million displaced Sudanese have returned to their areas of origin across the country, including in Khartoum.