Rahi Calls on the United Nations to 'Save Lebanon'

 Maronite Patriarch Cardinal Bechara Boutros al-Rahi called on the UN to hold an international conference on Lebanon. (NNA)
Maronite Patriarch Cardinal Bechara Boutros al-Rahi called on the UN to hold an international conference on Lebanon. (NNA)
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Rahi Calls on the United Nations to 'Save Lebanon'

 Maronite Patriarch Cardinal Bechara Boutros al-Rahi called on the UN to hold an international conference on Lebanon. (NNA)
Maronite Patriarch Cardinal Bechara Boutros al-Rahi called on the UN to hold an international conference on Lebanon. (NNA)

Maronite Patriarch Cardinal Bechara Boutros al-Rahi urged to the United Nations to save Lebanon by holding an international conference – a call that was supported by country’s opposition parties and rejected by Shiites.

“Faced with Parliament’s drastic failure to elect a new president of the republic, with the five sessions being a farcical drama...and the failure of all internal dialogues...we find no solution except to call for an international conference to renew the guarantee of the independent Lebanese entity, the democratic system and the state’s exclusive control over its lands, based on the constitution and then on all international resolutions pertaining to Lebanon,” the Patriarch said during the Sunday mass in Bkerki.

He continued: “Any delay in adopting this constitutional and international solution would drag the country into non-peaceful dangers that no party can withstand.”

Rahi’s call was endorsed by Hezbollah’s opponents. A letter signed by the Meeting of Our Lady of the Mountain, the National Gathering, and the National Initiative Movement, expressed support to the patriarch’s positions and called on Bkerki to establish a national front to defend the country’s “legitimacy, positive neutrality, the international conference for Taif and the constitution, and the resolutions of international legitimacy.”

On the other hand, Rahi’s sermon prompted a response from the Development and Liberation bloc, which is headed by Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri.

Sources from the bloc told Asharq Al-Awsat: “The main problem in the presidential elections is between the Christians themselves.”

“Can Bkerki or any other Lebanese side play a consensual role or at least unify the vision and criteria… especially since the presidential elections… concern the Christians in the first place?” They asked.

For his part, Jaafari Mufti Ahmed Qabalan warned that an international conference would harm Lebanon’s sovereignty.

“The interest of Christians and Muslims is to agree on a national president through Parliament and implement a project for a strong state, national partnership and effective constitutional institutions, away from international stances that consider Lebanon… an arena for settlements,” he stated.



Iraq's Kurdish Oil Exports Restart is Not Imminent

An oil field in Iraqi Kurdistan. Photo: Kurdistan government media/AFP
An oil field in Iraqi Kurdistan. Photo: Kurdistan government media/AFP
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Iraq's Kurdish Oil Exports Restart is Not Imminent

An oil field in Iraqi Kurdistan. Photo: Kurdistan government media/AFP
An oil field in Iraqi Kurdistan. Photo: Kurdistan government media/AFP

A restart of Iraq's Kurdish oil exports is not imminent, sources close to the matter said on Friday, despite Iraq's federal government saying on Thursday that shipments would resume immediately.

Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government have been in negotiations since February to end a stand-off that has halted flows from the north of the country to Türkiye's port of Ceyhan. The KRG was producing about 435,000 barrels per day (bpd) before the pipeline closure in March 2023, Reuters reported.

On Thursday the federal government said that Iraqi Kurdistan would resume oil exports immediately through the pipeline to Türkiye's despite drone attacks that have shut down half of the region's output.

But on Friday a source at APIKUR, a group of oil companies working in Kurdistan, said that a restart depended on the receipt of written agreements. Another at KAR Group, which operates the pipeline, said that no preparations had been made for a restart.

Baghdad and the companies have not yet agreed how to restart the exports, a KRG government source said, while a source at Türkiye's Ceyhan said there was also no preparation at the terminal for a restart of flows.

On Thursday, a statement from KRG Prime Minister Masrour Barzani said the government had approved a joint understanding with the federal government and it was awaiting financial details.

Similar agreements in the past failed to secure a resumption in exports and it remains unclear if this deal will succeed.

Oil companies working in Kurdistan have previously demanded that their production-sharing contracts should remain unchanged and their debts of nearly $1 billion be settled under any agreement.

Oilfields in Iraqi Kurdistan have been attacked by drones this week, with officials pointing to Iran-backed militias as the likely source of the attacks, although no group has claimed responsibility.

They are the first such attacks on oilfields in the region and coincide with the first attacks in seven months on shipping in the Red Sea by Iran-aligned Houthi militants in Yemen.

On Thursday a strike hit an oilfield operated by Norway's DNO in Tawke, the region's counter-terrorism service said.

It was the week's second strike on a site operated by DNO, which operates the Tawke and Peshkabour oilfields in the Zakho area that borders Türkiye.

No casualties have been reported, but oil output in the region has been cut by between 140,000 bpd and 150,000 bpd, two energy officials said.