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Lebanon: US Vetoes 'Hezbollah Promotion' in Next Cabinet

President Donald Trump meets with Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, July 25, 2017. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
President Donald Trump meets with Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, July 25, 2017. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
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Lebanon: US Vetoes 'Hezbollah Promotion' in Next Cabinet

President Donald Trump meets with Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, July 25, 2017. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
President Donald Trump meets with Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, July 25, 2017. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

The United States has placed a decisive veto on any qualitative or quantitative increase of Hezbollah’s share in the next Cabinet, Lebanese sources told Asharq Al-Awsat on Tuesday.

The sources said US officials had already informed Lebanese leaders that any increase of the party’s powers in the upcoming government would be confronted by a total American boycott, through sanctions on institutions governed by the party and a freeze of US planned aid to the Lebanese Army.

Hezbollah publicly demands to receive two portfolios in the next cabinet, including the Ministry of Health and another services ministry.

However, the sources said the US warnings would constitute an obstacle facing Hezbollah’s new demands.

Therefore, they said, the Party would have two choices: to either accept to receive the same portfolios it has in the current government (Ministry of Agriculture and of Youth and Sports), or reject that, which practically means obstructing the formation of the government.

If Hezbollah receives the Ministry of Health, then “US pressures would automatically lead to the freeze of aids planned to the Ministry amounting to around $150 million,” the sources said.

And, while the US Embassy in Beirut had issued no statements in this regard, Lebanese sources said the embassy had informed officials in Beirut that its official position had not changed from the one announced regarding previous governments. “Washington would automatically stop dealing with any ministry chaired by a Hezbollah member,” they explained.

The US considers Hezbollah a terrorist organization.

Meanwhile, the government formation process was hindered on Monday after President Michel Aoun announced some “observations” on the format of a ministerial formula presented Monday by Prime-Minister designate Saad Hariri.

The President considered the formula as not respecting the principles and criteria that he had determined regarding the form of the government, as well as Lebanon's interest.

On Tuesday, Hariri indirectly responded to Aoun’s observations, saying: “My prerogatives are clear in the constitution, full stop, this should not be the subject of debate.”

Hariri added that if any political party thinks it is bigger than the country or the interest of the country, then this is the problem.

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Arab World

Iran Mobilizes Remnants of Fourth Division to Stoke Syria Unrest

Circulating images of Syria’s Fourth Division
Circulating images of Syria’s Fourth Division
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Iran Mobilizes Remnants of Fourth Division to Stoke Syria Unrest

Circulating images of Syria’s Fourth Division
Circulating images of Syria’s Fourth Division

The Syria TV website said Iran has been working since early December to mobilize remnants of the Fourth Division, which was linked to Iran and previously overseen by Maher al-Assad, the brother of fugitive President Bashar al-Assad, to inflame the situation in Syria.

Citing regional security sources, the website reported that Iran is utilizing Ghiyath Dalla, the former commander of the Fourth Division, along with Maj. Gen. Kamal Hassan, a former head of military intelligence, and Maj. Gen. Ghassan Bilal, who previously served in the Fourth Division’s command.

According to the sources, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which has over recent months kept dozens of officers from the Fourth Division and military intelligence in camps it controls along the Iraqi border, in Lebanon’s Hermel area, and in areas under the control of formations linked to the Kurdistan Workers Party in eastern Syria, is pushing for their return to Syrian territory and the mobilization of former Assad regime elements for a new wave of security operations.

The New York Times recently published a report based on interviews with participants in those moves and a review of correspondence between them, showing that the former leadership figures are determined to reassert their influence in Syria, which remains gripped by tensions more than 13 years after the outbreak of civil war.

The newspaper said it had received credible information that some former figures in the Assad regime are working to build an armed insurgent movement from exile.

One of them is backing a lobbying campaign in Washington, estimated to cost millions of dollars, in the hope of securing control over Syria’s coastal region, the stronghold of the Alawite sect to which Assad and many of his senior military and security commanders belong.

Returning to the information cited by Syria TV, Iran has several objectives in fueling tensions in Syria. Chief among them is easing US pressure on Iran in the Iraqi arena along the Iranian border, where the US envoy to Baghdad is pressing Iraqi factions to disband.

Escalation in Syria would serve as a distraction and diversion from those efforts.

The report said pressure is also expected to intensify on Lebanon’s Hezbollah to complete the process of disarming, with the possibility that it could face new military operations, alongside a potential new Israeli attack on Iran.

Mobilizing remnants of the Assad regime and extending their presence in Syria would give Tehran and Hezbollah greater room to maneuver, rather than remaining confined to a defensive posture.

They could also be used in intelligence operations to track future Israeli movements preemptively.

 

Arab World

Somali President to Visit Türkiye After Israeli Recognition of Somaliland

Somalia's President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud delivers a joint press conference with the German Chancellor after talks at the Chancellery in Berlin, on November 5, 2024. (AFP)
Somalia's President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud delivers a joint press conference with the German Chancellor after talks at the Chancellery in Berlin, on November 5, 2024. (AFP)
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Somali President to Visit Türkiye After Israeli Recognition of Somaliland

Somalia's President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud delivers a joint press conference with the German Chancellor after talks at the Chancellery in Berlin, on November 5, 2024. (AFP)
Somalia's President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud delivers a joint press conference with the German Chancellor after talks at the Chancellery in Berlin, on November 5, 2024. (AFP)

Somalia's president is to visit Türkiye on Tuesday following Israel's recognition of the breakaway territory of Somaliland, Türkiye’s presidency said.

Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud will hold talks "on the current situation in Somalia in the fight against terrorism, measures taken by the federal Somali government towards national unity and regional developments", Burhanettin Duran, head of the Turkish presidency's communications directorate, said on X.

Türkiye on Friday denounced Israel's recognition of Somaliland, a self-proclaimed republic, calling it "overt interference in Somalia's domestic affairs".

Somaliland declared independence in 1991.

The region has operated autonomously since then and possesses its own currency, army and police force.

It has generally experienced greater stability than Somalia, where Al-Shabaab militants periodically mount attacks in the capital Mogadishu.

Diplomatic isolation has been the norm -- until Israel's move to recognize it as a sovereign nation, which has been criticized by the African Union, Egypt, the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council and the Saudi-based Organization of Islamic Cooperation.

The European Union has insisted Somalia's sovereignty should be respected.

The recognition is the latest move by Israel that has angered Türkiye, with relations souring between the two countries in recent years.

Ankara has strongly condemned Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip, and Israel has opposed Türkiye’s participation in a future stabilization force in the Palestinian territory.

Arab World

Iraq's Parliament Elects Al-Halbousi as Its New Speaker

The new speaker of parliament Haibet Al-Halbousi, center, looks on before the start of their first legislative session in Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, Dec. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)
The new speaker of parliament Haibet Al-Halbousi, center, looks on before the start of their first legislative session in Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, Dec. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)
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Iraq's Parliament Elects Al-Halbousi as Its New Speaker

The new speaker of parliament Haibet Al-Halbousi, center, looks on before the start of their first legislative session in Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, Dec. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)
The new speaker of parliament Haibet Al-Halbousi, center, looks on before the start of their first legislative session in Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, Dec. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

Iraq's parliament on Monday elected a new speaker following overnight talks to break a political deadlock.

Haibet Al-Halbousi received 208 votes from the 309 legislators who attended, according to The AP news. He is a member of the Takadum, or Progress, party led by ousted speaker and relative Mohammed al-Halbousi. Twenty legislators did not attend the session.

Iraq held parliamentary elections in November but didn’t produce a bloc with a decisive majority. By convention, Iraq’s president is always Kurdish, while the more powerful prime minister is Shiite and the parliamentary speaker is Sunni.

The new speaker must address a much-debated bill that would have the Hashd al-Shaabi, or Popular Mobilization Units become a formal security institution under the state. Iran-backed armed groups have growing political influence.

Al-Halbousi also must tackle Iraq’s mounting public debt of tens of billions of dollars as well as widespread corruption.

Babel Governor Adnan Feyhan was elected first deputy speaker with 177 votes, a development that might concern Washington. Feyhan is a member of the Asaib Ahl al-Haq, or League of the Righteous, a US-sanctioned, Iran-backed group with an armed wing led by Qais al-Khazali, also sanctioned by Washington.