Aoun Approves Lebanese Govt Resignation, Demands Mikati's Removal as PM-designate

Lebanon's outgoing President Michel Aoun delivers a speech to mark the end of his mandate, outside the presidential palace in Baabda, east of the capital Beirut, on October 30, 2022. (AFP)
Lebanon's outgoing President Michel Aoun delivers a speech to mark the end of his mandate, outside the presidential palace in Baabda, east of the capital Beirut, on October 30, 2022. (AFP)
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Aoun Approves Lebanese Govt Resignation, Demands Mikati's Removal as PM-designate

Lebanon's outgoing President Michel Aoun delivers a speech to mark the end of his mandate, outside the presidential palace in Baabda, east of the capital Beirut, on October 30, 2022. (AFP)
Lebanon's outgoing President Michel Aoun delivers a speech to mark the end of his mandate, outside the presidential palace in Baabda, east of the capital Beirut, on October 30, 2022. (AFP)

Lebanese President Michel Aoun approved on Sunday the resignation of the caretaker government, fulfilling a warning he had made in recent days.

Aoun had stirred debate when he said that the caretaker government would be deemed resigned in wake of the May parliamentary elections.

Also on Sunday, Aoun demanded that Najib Mikati be removed as prime minister-designate. He called on parliament to convene to address the issue, marking a precedent in the country.

It was his final move in office before his term ends on Monday.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri revealed to Asharq Al-Awsat that he would call the legislature to convene in the coming two days to discuss Aoun’s demand.

He added that the election of a president will be a priority in the coming stage “because vacuum is rejected.”

He also revealed that he may call on political parties to hold dialogue to address pending issues.

Aoun’s message

In a letter to parliament, Aoun called for the removal of Mikati as PM-designate, for a replacement to be appointed and the formation of a government “to avoid vacuum”.

He accused Mikati of “refraining” from forming a government when Lebanon was on the verge of presidential vacuum, leaving the country without a president and government.

The country and its people cannot tolerate vacuum in both positions due to its impact on the nation and national pact, he added.

Aoun said: “Mikati had informed us during our meetings to form a government of his lack of enthusiasm to form it for various reasons.”

Among them was his saying that the election of a president was a priority and that it would be followed with the formation of a government, he went on to say.

Moreover, Aoun said that even days before his term ended, he insisted to Mikati that a government be formed, “but he didn’t care and our calls fell on deaf ears.”

“This cemented our belief that he is unwilling to form a government and wanted to remain at the head of the caretaker one, banking on presidential vacuum to take place,” charged Aoun.

He stressed that he adamantly rejects the possibility of a caretaker government assuming the role of the president, citing Article 17 of the constitution.

The government usually assumes the duties of the president in case of a vacuum in the country’s top post.

Edge of the abyss

Aoun called on lawmakers to “immediately and without delay” elect a president or form a new government in the final two days of his term to “avoidthe edge of the abyss”.

He accused Mikati of taking the deliberate political decision to refrain from forming a government.

“He is holding back from forming a government, banking on vacuum that is lethal to our pact, identity, constitution and national security,” he continued.

Mikati “must immediately step down from forming a government, so that a replacement can be named to form a cabinet,” demanded Aoun.

Govt goes on

Mikati, for his part, stressed that the government will continue to carry out “all of its constitutional duties, including its caretaker role, in line with the constitution and other regulations.”

Parliament has held four sessions since late September to elect a president but no candidate was able to get the two-thirds majority of the vote needed.

As in previous votes, parliamentary blocs will have to agree on a consensus candidate for the country’s top post as no alliance within the legislature controls majority seats.

Aoun himself was elected in 2016 after a more than two-year vacuum. Despite Hezbollah’s support then, Aoun was only elected after he received the backing of the bloc of his main rivals of the Lebanese Forces party as well as the bloc of former Prime Minister Saad Hariri.

While it's not the first time that Lebanon’s parliament has failed to appoint a successor by the end of the president’s term, this will be the first time that there will be both no president and a caretaker cabinet with limited powers.

Lebanon’s constitution allows the cabinet in regular circumstances to run the government, but is unclear whether that applies to a caretaker government.



US Pulls Out of Two More Bases in Syria, Worrying Kurdish Forces

SDF forces in Syria. (AFP file)
SDF forces in Syria. (AFP file)
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US Pulls Out of Two More Bases in Syria, Worrying Kurdish Forces

SDF forces in Syria. (AFP file)
SDF forces in Syria. (AFP file)

US forces have pulled out of two more bases in northeastern Syria, visiting Reuters reporters found, accelerating a troop drawdown that the commander of US-backed Syrian Kurdish forces said was allowing a resurgence of ISIS.

Reuters reporters who visited the two bases in the past week found them mostly deserted, both guarded by small contingents of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) - the Kurdish-led military group that Washington has backed in the fight against ISIS for a decade.

Cameras used on bases occupied by the US-led military coalition had been taken down, and razor wire on the outer perimeters had begun to sag.

A Kurdish politician who lives on one base said there were no longer US troops there. SDF guards at the second base said troops had left recently but declined to say when. The Pentagon declined to comment.

It is the first confirmation on the ground by reporters that the US has withdrawn from Al-Wazir and Tel Baydar bases in Hasaka province. It brings to at least four the number of bases in Syria US troops have left since President Donald Trump took office.

Trump’s administration said this month it will scale down its military presence in Syria to one base from eight in parts of northeastern Syria that the SDF controls. The New York Times reported in April that troops might be reduced from 2,000 to 500 in the drawdown.

The SDF did not respond to questions about the current number of troops and open US bases in northeastern Syria.

But SDF commander Mazloum Abdi, who spoke to Reuters at another US base, Al Shadadi, said the presence of a few hundred troops on one base would be "not enough" to contain the threat of ISIS.

"The threat of ISIS has significantly increased recently. But this is the US military’s plan. We’ve known about it for a long time ... and we’re working with them to make sure there are no gaps and we can maintain pressure on ISIS," he said.

Abdi spoke to Reuters on Friday, hours after Israel launched its air war on Iran. He declined to comment on how the new Israel-Iran war would affect Syria, saying simply that he hoped it would not spill over there and that he felt safe on a US base.

Hours after the interview, three Iranian-made missiles targeted the Al Shadadi base and were shot down by US defense systems, two SDF security sources said.

ISIS ACTIVE IN SYRIAN CITIES

ISIS ruled vast swathes of Iraq and Syria from 2014 to 2017 during Syria’s civil war, imposing a vision of religious rule under which it beheaded locals in city squares, sex-trafficked members of the Yazidi minority and executed foreign journalists and aid workers.

The group, from its strongholds in Raqqa in Syria and Mosul in Iraq, also launched deadly attacks in European and Middle Eastern countries.

A US-led military Coalition of more than 80 countries waged a yearslong campaign to defeat the group and end its territorial control, supporting Iraqi forces and the SDF.

But ISIS has been reinvigorated since the ouster of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad in December at the hands of separate opposition factions.

Abdi said ISIS cells had become active in several Syrian cities, including Damascus, and that a group of foreign extremists who once battled the Syrian regime had joined its ranks. He did not elaborate.

He said ISIS had seized weapons and ammunition from Syrian regime depots in the chaos after Assad's fall.

Several Kurdish officials told Reuters that ISIS had already begun moving more openly around US bases which had recently been shuttered, including near the cities of Deir Ezzor and Raqqa, once strongholds for the extremist group.

In areas the SDF controls east of the Euphrates River, ISIS has waged a series of attacks and killed at least 10 SDF fighters and security forces, Abdi said. Attacks included a roadside bomb targeting a convoy of oil tankers on a road near the US base where he gave the interview.