Nabih Berri to Asharq Al-Awsat: Lebanon Is Headed to Worse Situation if We Don't Immediately Address Crises

 Lebanese parliament Speaker Nabih Berri chairs a parliament meeting at the UNESCO Palace in the capital Beirut, on April 21, 2020. (AFP)
Lebanese parliament Speaker Nabih Berri chairs a parliament meeting at the UNESCO Palace in the capital Beirut, on April 21, 2020. (AFP)
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Nabih Berri to Asharq Al-Awsat: Lebanon Is Headed to Worse Situation if We Don't Immediately Address Crises

 Lebanese parliament Speaker Nabih Berri chairs a parliament meeting at the UNESCO Palace in the capital Beirut, on April 21, 2020. (AFP)
Lebanese parliament Speaker Nabih Berri chairs a parliament meeting at the UNESCO Palace in the capital Beirut, on April 21, 2020. (AFP)

Lebanon's parliament Speaker Nabih Berri warned the country would be headed to a worse situation if accumulating crises are not addressed.

In remarks to Asharq Al-Awsat, he said this week is "decisive" in determining the course of events.

He said attention would be focused on the constitutional council's decision over the appeal filed by the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) over the parliamentary electoral law.

Officials and parties have been warning against the potential postponement of the elections that are set for March 2022. The Lebanese Forces (LF) has warned that it may take to the streets if the polls are delayed.

Berri noted the "major international interest" in Lebanon holding the elections.

"This is normal and it should also be normal and necessary for us to insist that they are held," he added.

He predicted that the constitutional council will announce its decision on Monday or Tuesday at most.

This in turn, will set in motion a new dynamic in the country regardless of whether the FPM appeal is accepted or not, he continued.

Moreover, Berri said that new efforts are underway to find solutions to problems, but the government crisis is still stalling.

He called for exerting serious efforts to resolve crises endured by the Lebanese people, "otherwise we will be confronted with a worse situation."

On Saturday, LF MP George Okais called on people to be ready to "head to the streets" should the elections be postponed or cancelled.

The elections are a "pivotal" junction and "necessary condition" to introduce change to the ruling authority in Lebanon, he added.

Any change takes place through elections, he remarked.

It is necessary to provide guarantees that the elections will be held, he went on to say.

The corrupt authority should be prevented from usurping the voice of the Lebanese people, urged the MP.

Okais warned against attempts to postpone the parliamentary and presidential elections, which are also set for 2022.

The LF opposes the extension of President Michel Aoun's term, he stressed

Mustaqbal MP Mohammed al-Hajjar warned that some sides are working on obstructing the parliamentary elections.

The movement insists that they be held on time, he stated.

"If they are not held, for whatever reason, then we will resign from parliament," he revealed.

The international community is using all its means to ensure that the polls are held because it wants to change the political class, he added.

Some sides claim that they want the elections be staged, but they are in fact working against them, he noted.

The FPM had on Saturday hoped that the constitutional council would approve its appeal.

The movement said it had appealed "flagrant legal and constitutional flaws" in the electoral law. It hoped the council would accept its appeal over an article that had deprived expatriates of their right to elect six lawmakers who would represent them at parliament.

The FPM stressed that it rejects any concession over these rights and that it deems any obstruction of state institutions as a form of blackmail

Furthermore, the movement had appealed the parliament's recommendation to hold the polls in March instead of May, as has been the case for years.

It also objected against allowing expatriates to vote for the entire 128-member legislature, instead of six seats allotted to them. It explained that such a move goes against a law that had dedicated the six seats to the expatriates. The seats represent all sects and form a new electoral district that is added to the ones designated to citizens residing in Lebanon.



US Aircraft Carrier in the Middle East is Heading Home

File photo of the US aircraft carrier "Eisenhower" in the Red Sea (AFP)
File photo of the US aircraft carrier "Eisenhower" in the Red Sea (AFP)
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US Aircraft Carrier in the Middle East is Heading Home

File photo of the US aircraft carrier "Eisenhower" in the Red Sea (AFP)
File photo of the US aircraft carrier "Eisenhower" in the Red Sea (AFP)

The Pentagon's rare move to keep two Navy aircraft carriers in the Middle East over the past several weeks has now finished, as the USS Theodore Roosevelt is heading home, according to US officials.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had ordered the Roosevelt to extend its deployment for a short time and remain in the region as the USS Abraham Lincoln was pushed to get to the area more quickly. The Biden administration beefed up the US military presence there to help defend Israel from possible attacks by Iran and its proxies and to safeguard US troops, according to The AP.

US commanders in the Middle East have long argued that the presence of a US aircraft carrier and the warships accompanying it has been an effective deterrent in the region, particularly for Iran. Since the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip began last fall, there has been a persistent carrier presence in and around the region — and for short periods they have overlapped to have two of the carriers there at the same time.

Prior to last fall, however, it had been years since the US had committed that much warship power to the region.

The decision to bring the Roosevelt home comes as the war in Gaza has dragged on for 11 months, with tens of thousands of people dead, and international efforts to mediate a ceasefire between Israel and the Hamas militant group have repeatedly stalled as they accuse each other of making additional and unacceptable demands.

For a number of months earlier this year the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower remained in the Red Sea, able both to respond to help Israel and to defend commercial and military ships from attacks by the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen. The carrier, based in Norfolk, Virginia, returned home after an over eight-month deployment in combat that the Navy said was the most intense since World War II.

US officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss troop movements, said the San Diego-based Roosevelt and the USS Daniel Inouye, a destroyer, are expected to be in the Indo-Pacific Command's region on Thursday. The other destroyer in the strike group, the USS Russell, had already left the Middle East and has been operating in the South China Sea.

The Lincoln, which is now in the Gulf of Oman with several other warships, arrived in the Middle East about three weeks ago, allowing it to overlap with the Roosevelt until now.

There also are a number of US ships in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, and two destroyers and the guided missile submarine USS Georgia are in the Red Sea.