Lebanon: Aoun, Mikati Hold Unfruitful Meeting amid Disagreement over Govt Lineup

President Michel Aoun and Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati met at the Baabda Palace on Wednesday. (Dalati & Nohra)
President Michel Aoun and Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati met at the Baabda Palace on Wednesday. (Dalati & Nohra)
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Lebanon: Aoun, Mikati Hold Unfruitful Meeting amid Disagreement over Govt Lineup

President Michel Aoun and Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati met at the Baabda Palace on Wednesday. (Dalati & Nohra)
President Michel Aoun and Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati met at the Baabda Palace on Wednesday. (Dalati & Nohra)

A meeting on Wednesday between President Michel Aoun and Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati failed to advance the talks over the formation of a new government.

Well-informed sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that the two officials disagreed over the government lineup and the number of ministers.

The sources noted that Mikati preferred to maintain a government of 24 ministers, and replace the minister of the Displaced, Issam Sharafeddine, and Economy Minister Amin Salam, while Aoun was pushing for adding six ministers of state to the lineup, in order to form a political cover for the government, in the event of a presidential vacuum.

In remarks following the meeting, the prime minister-designate said that discussions would be continued later.

The Presidency, for its part, noted Aoun and Mikati “tackled the various details pertaining to the formation process and would continue consultations at a later time.”

While some politicians were still relying on external and internal pressures to form a government, indirect disputes and exchange of accusations continued between the political blocs supporting Mikati on the one hand, and the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) headed by MP Gebran Bassil – Aoun’s son-in-law, on the other.

FPM MP Salim Aoun spoke about “some parties’ attempt to impose their conditions on the movement, while the Lebanon 24 website, which is affiliated with Mikati, launched an attack on Bassil, accusing him of obstructing the formation of the government.

In a radio interview, Aoun said that the Baabda meeting on Wednesday was the result of external and internal opinions that are pushing for a breakthrough in the ongoing efforts to form a government in order to avoid a vacuum.”

On the other hand, MP Michel Moussa, member of the Development and Liberation bloc headed by Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, underlined the need for a new government that would handle pressing files, including the demarcation of the maritime borders and the ongoing negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

“Concessions from all sides are required today to facilitate the formation of a government…” he said in a radio conversation.



Israel Closes 6 UN Schools for Palestinians in East Jerusalem

Palestinian schoolgirls leave a UNWRA school in the Shoafat refugee camp in east Jerusalem on May 8, 2025, as Israeli security forces reportedly prepare to close the school. (Photo by Ahmad GHARABLI / AFP)
Palestinian schoolgirls leave a UNWRA school in the Shoafat refugee camp in east Jerusalem on May 8, 2025, as Israeli security forces reportedly prepare to close the school. (Photo by Ahmad GHARABLI / AFP)
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Israel Closes 6 UN Schools for Palestinians in East Jerusalem

Palestinian schoolgirls leave a UNWRA school in the Shoafat refugee camp in east Jerusalem on May 8, 2025, as Israeli security forces reportedly prepare to close the school. (Photo by Ahmad GHARABLI / AFP)
Palestinian schoolgirls leave a UNWRA school in the Shoafat refugee camp in east Jerusalem on May 8, 2025, as Israeli security forces reportedly prepare to close the school. (Photo by Ahmad GHARABLI / AFP)

Israel permanently closed six UN schools in east Jerusalem on Thursday, forcing Palestinian students to leave early and throwing the education of more than 800 others into question.

Last month, heavily armed Israeli police and Education Ministry officials ordered six schools in east Jerusalem to close within 30 days, which ended on Wednesday. The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA, runs the six schools. UNRWA also runs schools in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, which continue to operate, The Associated Press reported.

The closure orders come after Israel banned UNRWA from operating on its soil earlier this year, the culmination of a long campaign against the agency that intensified following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel that ignited the war in Gaza. Israel claims that UNRWA schools teach antisemitic content and anti-Israel sentiment, which UNRWA denies.

UNRWA is the main provider of education and health care to Palestinian refugees across east Jerusalem, which Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war. Israel has annexed east Jerusalem and considers the entire city its unified capital.

The Israeli Ministry of Education says it will place the students into other Jerusalem schools. But parents, teachers and administrators caution that closing the main schools in east Jerusalem will force their children to go through crowded and dangerous checkpoints daily, and some do not have the correct permits to pass through.

In a previous statement to The Associated Press, the Ministry of Education said it was closing the schools because they were operating without a license. UNRWA administrators pledged to keep the schools open for as long as possible.