Lebanon: Possible Government Formation by the End of the Week

President Michel Aoun met Thursday with French ambassador Bruno Foucher and discussed with him the current situation in Lebanon and the ongoing contacts to form a new government (NNA)
President Michel Aoun met Thursday with French ambassador Bruno Foucher and discussed with him the current situation in Lebanon and the ongoing contacts to form a new government (NNA)
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Lebanon: Possible Government Formation by the End of the Week

President Michel Aoun met Thursday with French ambassador Bruno Foucher and discussed with him the current situation in Lebanon and the ongoing contacts to form a new government (NNA)
President Michel Aoun met Thursday with French ambassador Bruno Foucher and discussed with him the current situation in Lebanon and the ongoing contacts to form a new government (NNA)

Several sources confirmed on Thursday the obstacles on the Sunni and Druze representation in the new Lebanese government have been removed as talks are expected to continue on Friday to resolve the problem on the Christian figures who would get the foreign and energy ministry portfolios.

All parties have agreed that the new cabinet should not include members of the outgoing government based on the request of Prime Minister designate Hassan Diab.

Informed sources predicted the announcement of the new cabinet by the end of the week if an agreement is reached between Diab and caretaker Foreign Minister and the head of the Free Patriotic Movement, Gebran Bassil, on the names of ministers to assume the portfolios of energy and foreign affairs.

The sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that the Druze obstacle has been resolved. Druze parties have refused to be represented by only one minister.

Diab was also able to choose former Judge Fawzi Adham for the Interior Ministry after facing difficulties in finding a Sunni figure who accepts to assume the post.

The Central News Agency quoted sources on Thursday as saying that “one Christian figure, concerned by the cabinet formation talks, is rejecting all names suggested by Diab to assume ministries headed by Christian and even some non-Christian figures.”

However, the sources added that Diab rejected such behaviors and insisted that all parties stick to the norms based on which he appointed the Druze and Sunni ministers.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea said in a statement that leaked news about the new government lineup are not reassuring, especially that the political parties responsible for the current crisis are behind the nomination of ministers.

"Everything that has been leaked by the media on the upcoming government is not reassuring, neither in terms of the interference of the political parties that caused the current crisis in the country, nor in terms of the distribution of portfolios among them," he said.



UN Races to Feed One Million Gazans after Truce

People walk past trucks loaded with aid waiting to cross into Gaza from the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing on January 19, 2025. (AFP)
People walk past trucks loaded with aid waiting to cross into Gaza from the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing on January 19, 2025. (AFP)
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UN Races to Feed One Million Gazans after Truce

People walk past trucks loaded with aid waiting to cross into Gaza from the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing on January 19, 2025. (AFP)
People walk past trucks loaded with aid waiting to cross into Gaza from the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing on January 19, 2025. (AFP)

The UN's World Food Program said Sunday it was moving full throttle to get food to as many Gazans as possible after border crossings reopened as part of a long-awaited ceasefire deal.

"We're trying to reach a million people within the shortest possible time," the WFP's Deputy Executive Director Carl Skau told AFP, as the Rome-based UN agency's trucks began rolling into the strip.

"We're moving in with wheat flour, ready to eat meals, and we will be working all fronts trying to restock the bakeries," Skau said, adding the agency would attempt to provide nutritional supplements to the most malnourished.

An initial 42-day truce between Israel and Hamas is meant to enable a surge of sorely needed humanitarian aid into the Palestinian territory after 15 months of war.

"The agreement is for 600 trucks a day... All the crossings will be open," Skau said.

The first WFP trucks entered Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing in the south and through the Zikim crossing in the north, the agency said in a statement, as it began trying to pull "the war-ravaged territory back from starvation".

"We have 150 trucks lined up for every day for the next at least 20 days," Skau said, adding that the WFP was "hopeful that the border crossings will be open and efficient".

There needs to be "an environment inside (Gaza) that is secure enough for our teams to move around," so that food "does not just get over the border but also gets into the hands of the people".

"It seems so far that things have been working relatively well.... We need to now sustain that over several days over weeks," he said.

Before the ceasefire came into effect, WFP was operating just five out of the 20 bakeries it partners with due to dwindling supplies of fuel and flour, as well as insecurity in northern Gaza.

"We're hoping that we will be up and running on all those bakeries as soon as possible," Skau said, stressing that it was "one of our top priorities" to get bread to "tens of thousands of people each day".

"It also has a psychological effect to be able to put warm bread into the hands of the people".

WFP also wants to "get the private sector and commercial goods in there as soon as possible," he said.

That would mean the UN agency could replace ready meals with vouchers and cash for people to buy their own food "to bring back some dignity" and allow them "frankly to start rebuilding their lives".

WFP said in a statement that it has enough food pre-positioned along the borders -- and on its way to Gaza -- to feed over a million people for three months.

Vast areas of Gaza have been devastated by Israel's retaliatory assault on the territory after the October 7 Hamas attack last year sparked the war.

The attack, the deadliest in Israel's history, resulted in the deaths of 1,210 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel's retaliatory campaign has killed at least 46,913 people, also mostly civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory's health ministry that the United Nations considers reliable.