Lebanon Security Chief's Term to End after Authorities Skip on Renewal

Lebanon's General Security chief Abbas Ibrahim. (NNA)
Lebanon's General Security chief Abbas Ibrahim. (NNA)
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Lebanon Security Chief's Term to End after Authorities Skip on Renewal

Lebanon's General Security chief Abbas Ibrahim. (NNA)
Lebanon's General Security chief Abbas Ibrahim. (NNA)

The term of Lebanon's powerful General Security chief Abbas Ibrahim is set to end this week as neither cabinet nor parliament have discussed a measure that would allow him to stay on after reaching the legal retirement age.

Ibrahim, who hails from southern Lebanon, has headed the General Security directorate since 2011 and is considered a key regional interlocutor who has good ties with the Iran-backed group Hezbollah and links with Western governments.

On Thursday, he will turn 64, which is the legal retirement age in Lebanon. Lebanese authorities have in the past issued exceptional exemptions for top officials to stay on past 64 if a vacuum in their post is seen as risking instability.

But Lebanon's caretaker cabinet did not discuss an extension at its meeting on Monday.

Information Minister Ziad Makary told reporters after the meeting that cabinet "can do nothing" and that the decision was to be taken by the interior minister.

Caretaker Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi, whose ministry manages General Security and some other security forces, did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Lebanon's caretaker premier Najib Mikati said in an interview last week that the issue should be dealt with by parliament as it involved legal amendments.

Parliament has not met and no session is scheduled before Ibrahim is set to retire.

A source close to Hezbollah told Reuters that the group had tried to "throw its full weight" behind a parliament session to extend Ibrahim's term but was unable to secure enough support.

Mawlawi is expected to name an acting chief once Ibrahim's term ends. Lebanon is already in an unprecedented constitutional crisis - with the presidency vacant and cabinet acting in a caretaker capacity since last year's parliamentary elections.

Ibrahim is seen as close to Hezbollah and authorities in neighboring Syria, but he has also regularly traveled to Washington and Paris to meet top officials there.

As a result, he has been seen as an important interlocutor, involved in cases from the missing US reporter Austin Tice to US-mediated talks between Lebanon and Israel on their maritime border, which was delineated last year.

He was charged earlier this year by Tarek Bitar, the Lebanese judge investigating the catastrophic August 2020 Beirut port explosion, but remained in his post. Ibrahim declined to comment on the charges at the time.



Egypt Says GERD Lacks Legally Binding Agreement

This grab taken from video shows Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam in the Benishangul-Gumuz region, Ethiopia, Feb. 20, 2022. (AP Photo)
This grab taken from video shows Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam in the Benishangul-Gumuz region, Ethiopia, Feb. 20, 2022. (AP Photo)
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Egypt Says GERD Lacks Legally Binding Agreement

This grab taken from video shows Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam in the Benishangul-Gumuz region, Ethiopia, Feb. 20, 2022. (AP Photo)
This grab taken from video shows Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam in the Benishangul-Gumuz region, Ethiopia, Feb. 20, 2022. (AP Photo)

Egypt said Friday that Ethiopia has consistently lacked the political will to reach a binding agreement on its now-complete dam, an issue that involves Nile River water rights and the interests of Egypt and Sudan.

Ethiopia’s prime minister said Thursday that the country’s power-generating dam, known as the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), on the Nile is now complete and that the government is “preparing for its official inauguration” in September.

Egypt has long opposed the construction of the dam, because it would reduce the country's share of Nile River waters, which it almost entirely relies on for agriculture and to serve its more than 100 million people.

The more than the $4 billion dam on the Blue Nile near the Sudan border began producing power in 2022. It’s expected to eventually produce more than 6,000 megawatts of electricity — double Ethiopia’s current output.

Ethiopia and Egypt have spent years trying to reach an agreement over the dam, which Ethiopia began building in 2011.

Both countries reached no deal despite negotiations over 13 years, and it remains unclear how much water Ethiopia will release downstream in case of a drought.

Egyptian officials, in a statement, called the completion of the dam “unlawful” and said that it violates international law, reflecting “an Ethiopian approach driven by an ideology that seeks to impose water hegemony” instead of equal partnership.

“Egypt firmly rejects Ethiopia’s continued policy of imposing a fait accompli through unilateral actions concerning the Nile River, which is an international shared watercourse,” Egypt’s Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation said in a statement Friday.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, in his address to lawmakers Thursday, said that his country “remains committed to ensuring that our growth does not come at the expense of our Egyptian and Sudanese brothers and sisters.”

“We believe in shared progress, shared energy, and shared water,” he said. “Prosperity for one should mean prosperity for all.”

However, the Egyptian water ministry said Friday that Ethiopian statements calling for continued negotiations “are merely superficial attempts to improve its image on the international stage.”

“Ethiopia’s positions, marked by evasion and retreat while pursuing unilateralism, are in clear contradiction with its declared willingness to negotiate,” the statement read.

However, Egypt is addressing its water needs by expanding agricultural wastewater treatment and improving irrigation systems, according to the ministry, while also bolstering cooperation with Nile Basin countries through backing development and water-related projects.