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Report: Lebanese Cabinet to Meet Next Week after Three-Month Gap

A garbage bin placed by taxi drivers blocks a road during a protest against spiraling petrol prices and worsening economic conditions, in Sidon, Lebanon January 13, 2022. (Reuters)
A garbage bin placed by taxi drivers blocks a road during a protest against spiraling petrol prices and worsening economic conditions, in Sidon, Lebanon January 13, 2022. (Reuters)
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Report: Lebanese Cabinet to Meet Next Week after Three-Month Gap

A garbage bin placed by taxi drivers blocks a road during a protest against spiraling petrol prices and worsening economic conditions, in Sidon, Lebanon January 13, 2022. (Reuters)
A garbage bin placed by taxi drivers blocks a road during a protest against spiraling petrol prices and worsening economic conditions, in Sidon, Lebanon January 13, 2022. (Reuters)

Lebanon's cabinet will hold its first meeting in three months on Jan. 24, a Lebanese television channel reported on Monday, after a gap in which the country's economic crisis has deepened and efforts to revive talks with the IMF have stalled.

Economy Minister Amin Salam said work on the 2022 budget would be at the top of the agenda when ministers gather next week, Al Jadeed TV reported, after the Hezbollah party and Amal movement ended a boycott that had prevented cabinet sessions.

The cabinet, formed in September, had promised to start work on resolving a deep economic crisis and on reviving talks with the International Monetary Fund. But it has not met since Oct. 12.

The Shiite duo of Hezbollah and Amal had been boycotting the cabinet in a dispute over the conduct of an investigation into a huge explosion at Beirut port in 2020. They announced an end to the boycott on Saturday.

They have sought the removal of a judge who has been overseeing the blast probe.

Lebanon's economy has been in crisis since 2019 when it finally collapsed under a mountain of debt. Its currency has been in tailspin, plunging to a new low last week, and swathes of the nation have been driven into poverty.

Prime Minister Najib Mikati has said his government would seek to sign a preliminary agreement for an IMF support program in February.

An IMF spokesperson told Reuters that virtual talks would be held with Lebanese authorities in the last week of January.

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Italy’s Foreign Minister Heads to Syria to Encourage Post-Assad Transition

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani speaks to the media a he arrives for a meeting at Rome’s Villa Madama, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025 on the situation in Syria after the collapse of the Assad regime. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini (Andrew Medichini/AP POOL)
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani speaks to the media a he arrives for a meeting at Rome’s Villa Madama, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025 on the situation in Syria after the collapse of the Assad regime. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini (Andrew Medichini/AP POOL)
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Italy’s Foreign Minister Heads to Syria to Encourage Post-Assad Transition

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani speaks to the media a he arrives for a meeting at Rome’s Villa Madama, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025 on the situation in Syria after the collapse of the Assad regime. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini (Andrew Medichini/AP POOL)
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani speaks to the media a he arrives for a meeting at Rome’s Villa Madama, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025 on the situation in Syria after the collapse of the Assad regime. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini (Andrew Medichini/AP POOL)

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said he would travel to Syria on Friday to encourage the country's transition following the ouster of President Bashar Assad by insurgents, and appealed on Europe to review its sanctions on Damascus now that the political situation has changed.
Tajani presided over a meeting in Rome on Thursday of foreign ministry officials from five countries, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and the United States.
The aim, he said, is to coordinate the various post-Assad initiatives, with Italy prepared to make proposals on private investments in health care for the Syrian population.
Going into the meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and their European counterparts, Tajani said it was critical that all Syrians be recognized with equal rights. It was a reference to concerns about the rights of Christians and other minorities under Syria’s new de facto authorities of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HT.
“The first messages from Damascus have been positive. That’s why I’m going there tomorrow, to encourage this new phase that will help stabilize the international situation,” Tajani said.
Speaking to reporters, he said the European Union should discuss possible changes to its sanctions on Syria. “It’s an issue that should be discussed because Assad isn’t there anymore, it’s a new situation, and I think that the encouraging signals that are arriving should be further encouraged,” he said.
Syria has been under deeply isolating sanctions by the US, the European Union and others for years as a result of Assad’s brutal response to what began as peaceful anti-government protests in 2011 and spiraled into civil war.
HTS led a lightning insurgency that ousted Assad on Dec. 8 and ended his family’s decades-long rule. From 2011 until Assad’s downfall, Syria’s uprising and civil war killed an estimated 500,000 people.
The US has gradually lifted some penalties since Assad departed Syria for protection in Russia. The Biden administration in December decided to drop a $10 million bounty it had offered for the capture of a Syrian opposition leader whose forces led the ouster of Assad last month.
Syria’s new leaders also have been urged to respect the rights of minorities and women. Many Syrian Christians, who made up 10% of the population before Syria’s civil war, either fled the country or supported Assad out of fear of insurgents.