عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Arab World

Bassil Seeking Lebanese President with Sizeable Parliamentary, Ministerial Support

Leader of the Lebanese Free Patriotic Movement Gebran Bassil talks during a joint press conference with Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto, following their meeting in the latter's office in Budapest, Hungary, 15 July 2022. (EPA)
Leader of the Lebanese Free Patriotic Movement Gebran Bassil talks during a joint press conference with Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto, following their meeting in the latter's office in Budapest, Hungary, 15 July 2022. (EPA)
TT
TT

Bassil Seeking Lebanese President with Sizeable Parliamentary, Ministerial Support

Leader of the Lebanese Free Patriotic Movement Gebran Bassil talks during a joint press conference with Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto, following their meeting in the latter's office in Budapest, Hungary, 15 July 2022. (EPA)
Leader of the Lebanese Free Patriotic Movement Gebran Bassil talks during a joint press conference with Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto, following their meeting in the latter's office in Budapest, Hungary, 15 July 2022. (EPA)

Head of Lebanon’s Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) MP Gebran Bassil stressed that he opposes vacuum in the position of president.

“The country cannot tolerate such a vacuum,” he declared after holding talks with Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi at his summer residence in Diman.

Presidential elections are set for November with blocs intensifying their efforts to reach agreements on potential candidates.

“The elections will not lead to the desired change, but they are a constitutional event that must be held on time,” continued Bassil, who is President Michel Aoun’s son-in-law and whom media suggest has his own presidential aspirations.

“The president’s power stems from the privileges - limited as they are - that he enjoys,” continued the MP. “It is important that the president use his powers.”

Selecting the candidate must be based on his character and then, the extent of his representation, he remarked. “The president must represented by parliamentary and ministerial bloc that supports him and consolidates the strength of his privileges and position.”

The final say over this issue must lie in the hands of the “actual representatives,” he suggested. “This is an opportunity for Bkirki [the Patriarchate] to take the initiative and we will respond to it.”

Moreover, Bassil said the president “must be directly elected by the people and he must be of the people to avoid the threat of vacuum.”

The constitution stipulates that the president must be elected by parliament.

Most Viewed

 
 
Arab World

Nearly 30% of Syrians Want to Go Home, up from Almost Zero, UN Refugee Chief Says

This handout picture released by the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) shows Syria's de factor leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (R) receiving United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi (L) in Damascus on January 25, 2025. (SANA / AFP)
This handout picture released by the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) shows Syria's de factor leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (R) receiving United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi (L) in Damascus on January 25, 2025. (SANA / AFP)
TT
TT

Nearly 30% of Syrians Want to Go Home, up from Almost Zero, UN Refugee Chief Says

This handout picture released by the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) shows Syria's de factor leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (R) receiving United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi (L) in Damascus on January 25, 2025. (SANA / AFP)
This handout picture released by the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) shows Syria's de factor leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (R) receiving United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi (L) in Damascus on January 25, 2025. (SANA / AFP)

Almost 30% of the millions of Syrian refugees living in Middle Eastern countries want to return home in the next year, following the fall of President Bashar al-Assad, up from almost none last year, the head of the UN's refugee agency said.

The shift is based on an assessment done by the UN in January, weeks after Assad was ousted by opposition factions, bringing an abrupt end to a 13-year civil war that had created one of the biggest refugee crises of modern times.

"We have seen the needle move, finally, after years of decline," Filippo Grandi told a small group of reporters in Damascus, after holding meetings with the Syria's new ruling administration.

The number of Syrians wishing to return "had reached almost zero. It's now nearly 30% in the space of a few weeks. There is a message there, which I think is very important, must be listened to and must be acted upon," he said.

Around 200,000 Syrian refugees have already returned since Assad fell, he said, in addition to around 300,000 who fled back to Syria from Lebanon during the Hezbollah-Israel war in September and October, most of whom are thought to have stayed.

Returning the roughly 6 million Syrians who fled abroad and the millions who became internally displaced has been a main aim of Syria's new administration.

But the civil war has left large parts of many major cities in ruins, services decrepit and the vast majority of the population living in poverty. Syria remains under a harsh Western sanctions regime that effectively cuts off its formal economy from the rest of the world.

To aid Syrians returning, many of whom often sell all their belongings to pay for the trip, UN agencies are providing some cash aid for transportation and will help with food and to reconstruct at least parts of broken homes, Grandi said.

More aid is needed from donors, Grandi said, and sanctions should be reconsidered. He did not comment directly on an announcement on Friday by the new US administration of a broad suspension of foreign aid programs.

"If sanctions are lifted, this will improve the conditions in the places where people return," he said.

The US earlier this month provided a six-month sanctions exemption for some sectors, including energy, but Syria's new leaders say much more relief is needed.

Grandi said refugees were responding to a political process that the new administration's leader Ahmed al-Sharaa has committed to, aimed at producing a governing authority by March 1 that better represents Syria's diversity.

"Refugees are listening to what he's saying, to what his people are saying, and that's why I think many people decided to go back," Grandi said. "But many more will come if these things continue to be positive."