New Lebanese Govt Will Not Revise ‘Resistance Clause’ in Policy Statement

Lebanon's parliament speaker Nabih Berri (C-L) and President Michel Aoun (C) and Prime Minister Najib Mikati (C-R) pose for a group photo with the newly formed government at the presidential palace in Baabda, east of the capital Beirut. (Dalati & Nohra)
Lebanon's parliament speaker Nabih Berri (C-L) and President Michel Aoun (C) and Prime Minister Najib Mikati (C-R) pose for a group photo with the newly formed government at the presidential palace in Baabda, east of the capital Beirut. (Dalati & Nohra)
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New Lebanese Govt Will Not Revise ‘Resistance Clause’ in Policy Statement

Lebanon's parliament speaker Nabih Berri (C-L) and President Michel Aoun (C) and Prime Minister Najib Mikati (C-R) pose for a group photo with the newly formed government at the presidential palace in Baabda, east of the capital Beirut. (Dalati & Nohra)
Lebanon's parliament speaker Nabih Berri (C-L) and President Michel Aoun (C) and Prime Minister Najib Mikati (C-R) pose for a group photo with the newly formed government at the presidential palace in Baabda, east of the capital Beirut. (Dalati & Nohra)

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati’s government will not revise the clause pertaining to Hezbollah’s weapons in its ministerial statement, informed sources told Asharq Al-Awsat.

A ministerial committee assigned to draft the new cabinet’s policy statement began its work on Monday, amid expectations that its mission would be swift as the majority of files enjoy unanimity, including the item related to Hezbollah’s weapons and the conflict with Israel, which had sparked disputes in previous governments.

Sources familiar with the committee’s meetings told Asharq Al-Awsat that the clause on the resistance would not be changed, noting that a draft ministerial statement had been prepared by Mikati’s working team and was being discussed by the committee to draft the final version.

The “resistance clause”, which was adopted in 2005, referred to the “army, people and resistance” equation in the governments of 2008, 2009 and 2011. However, the governments of 2014, 2016, 2019 and 2020 agreed on replacing the above phrase with the following: “Emphasizing the right of Lebanese citizens to resist the Israeli occupation, repel its aggression and recover occupied lands.”

The new government held its first session on Monday, in the presence of President Michel Aoun.

In a speech on the occasion, Aoun said that the cabinet would work on the economic recovery plan and the reforms detailed in the French initiative.

He added that Mikati’s government would, along with other tasks, prepare to hold the parliamentary elections set for May 8, 2022, complete the ongoing investigations into the Beirut Port explosion and proceed with the anti-corruption plan, in particular kicking off the forensic audit.

Regarding the financial and economic situation, Aoun pointed to the development of a plan to restructure the banking sector and a recovery strategy to tackle the financial crisis, in addition to completing negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Meanwhile, Information International issued a report showing that since the election of Aoun on Oct. 31, 2016, the country witnessed the formation of four governments, two abstentions by prime minister-designates and 696 days of ministerial vacuum.

Former Prime Minister Hassan Diab’s cabinet worked in a caretaker capacity for 366 days – the longest period in the history of Lebanese governments.



UN: More than 1.3 Million Return to Homes in Sudan

Members of army walks near a destroyed military vehicle and bombed buildings, as Sudan's army retakes ground and some displaced residents return to ravaged capital in the state of Khartoum Sudan March 26, 2025. (Reuters)
Members of army walks near a destroyed military vehicle and bombed buildings, as Sudan's army retakes ground and some displaced residents return to ravaged capital in the state of Khartoum Sudan March 26, 2025. (Reuters)
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UN: More than 1.3 Million Return to Homes in Sudan

Members of army walks near a destroyed military vehicle and bombed buildings, as Sudan's army retakes ground and some displaced residents return to ravaged capital in the state of Khartoum Sudan March 26, 2025. (Reuters)
Members of army walks near a destroyed military vehicle and bombed buildings, as Sudan's army retakes ground and some displaced residents return to ravaged capital in the state of Khartoum Sudan March 26, 2025. (Reuters)

More than 1.3 million people who fled the fighting in Sudan have headed home, the United Nations said Friday, pleading for greater international aid to help returnees rebuild shattered lives.

Over a million internally displaced people (IDPs) have returned to their homes in recent months, UN agencies said.

A further 320,000 refugees have crossed back into Sudan this year, mainly from neighboring Egypt and South Sudan.

While fighting has subsided in the "pockets of relative safety" that people are beginning to return to, the situation remains highly precarious, the UN said.

Since April 2023, Sudan has been torn apart by a power struggle between army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, commander of the rival paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. The fighting has killed tens of thousands.

The RSF lost control of the capital, Khartoum, in March and the regular army now controls Sudan's center, north and east.

In a joint statement, the UN's IOM migration agency, UNHCR refugee agency and UNDP development agency called for an urgent increase in financial support to pay for the recovery as people begin to return, with humanitarian operations "massively underfunded".

Sudan has 10 million IDPs, including 7.7 million forced from their homes by the current conflict, they said.

More than four million have sought refuge in neighboring countries.

- 'Living nightmare' -

Sudan is "the largest humanitarian catastrophe facing our world and also the least remembered", the IOM's regional director Othman Belbeisi, speaking from Port Sudan, told a media briefing in Geneva.

He said 71 percent of returns had been to Al-Jazira state, with eight percent to Khartoum.

Other returnees were mostly heading for Sennar state.

Both Al-Jazira and Sennar are located southeast of the capital.

"We expect 2.1 million to return to Khartoum by the end of this year but this will depend on many factors, especially the security situation and the ability to restore services," Belbeisi said.

With the RSF holding nearly all of the western Darfur region, Kordofan in the south has become the war's main battleground in recent weeks.

He said the "vicious, horrifying civil war continues to take lives with impunity", imploring the warring factions to put down their guns.

"The war has unleashed hell for millions and millions of ordinary people," he said.

"Sudan is a living nightmare. The violence needs to stop."

- 'Massive' UXO contamination -

After visiting Khartoum and the Egyptian border, Mamadou Dian Balde, the UNHCR's regional refugee coordinator for the Sudan crisis, said people were coming back to destroyed public infrastructure, making rebuilding their lives extremely challenging.

Those returning from Egypt were typically coming back "empty handed", he said, speaking from Nairobi.

Luca Renda, UNDP's resident representative in Sudan, warned of further cholera outbreaks in Khartoum if broken services were not restored.

"What we need is for the international community to support us," he said.

Renda said around 1,700 wells needed rehabilitating, while at least six Khartoum hospitals and at least 35 schools needed urgent repairs.

He also sounded the alarm on the "massive" amount of unexploded ordnance littering the city and the need for decontamination.

He said anti-personnel mines had also been found in at least five locations in Khartoum.

"It will take years to fully decontaminate the city," he said, speaking from Port Sudan.