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Ambassadors of Quintet to Meet Lebanese Officials to Discuss Proposal to End Presidential Impasse

Saudi Ambassador to Lebanon Waleed al-Bukhari meets with Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarch of Antioch All the East Youssef Al-Absi on Friday. (NNA)
Saudi Ambassador to Lebanon Waleed al-Bukhari meets with Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarch of Antioch All the East Youssef Al-Absi on Friday. (NNA)
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Ambassadors of Quintet to Meet Lebanese Officials to Discuss Proposal to End Presidential Impasse

Saudi Ambassador to Lebanon Waleed al-Bukhari meets with Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarch of Antioch All the East Youssef Al-Absi on Friday. (NNA)
Saudi Ambassador to Lebanon Waleed al-Bukhari meets with Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarch of Antioch All the East Youssef Al-Absi on Friday. (NNA)

The ambassadors of the Quintet on Lebanon are continuing their efforts to reach a breakthrough in the presidential impasse in the country.

The envoys met at Saudi Ambassador to Beirut Waleed al-Bukhari's residence on Thursday and are expected to hold talks with several Lebanese officials next week to discuss their proposal on ending the deadlock.

The quintet is formed of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Qatar, France and the United States.

The envoys are scheduled to meet with Speaker Nabih Berri next week. Sources from his parliamentary bloc said he was open to cooperating with the Quintet.

The sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that he was awaiting what they have prepared over the presidency.

The envoys will not name candidates, but “standards and the outline for the election of the next president, who enjoys the support of the people.”

Lebanon has been without a president since the term of Michel Aoun ended in October 2022. Bickering between political blocs has thwarted an agreement on his successor.

On Friday, Bukhari met with Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarch of Antioch All the East Youssef Al-Absi for talks on national and regional affairs.

Bukhari described the visit as a protocol one, adding that he briefed Absi on the Quintet’s latest efforts to help end the presidential impasse.

For his part, Absi hailed the bilateral relations between Lebanon and Saudi Arabia and their peoples. He also praised the Kingdom’s efforts in Lebanon on all levels, reported the National News Agency.

Meanwhile, Egyptian Ambassador to Lebanon Alaa Moussa said the Quintet wants to facilitate issues in Lebanon and “help as much as it can”.

“The election of a president is not just a goal, but a step that would be followed up with others,” he said during a dinner banquet thrown in his honor by MP Neemat Frem.

He stressed that Egypt has a “clear and sustainable commitment towards the Lebanese people.”

“We have a joint interest for both Lebanon and Egypt to be strong. This ensures the success of both countries,” he added.

The meetings held by the Quintet ambassadors are a precursor to the arrival of French presidential envoy to Lebanon Jean-Yves Le Drian, who will also discuss the presidential vacuum with political powers.

As it stands, Hezbollah and its allies are still committed to the election of Marada Movement leader Suleiman Franjieh as president. The opposition still supports the run of former minister Jihad Azour. It is hoping that the Quintet would eventually pave the way for an agreement on a third candidate.

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Arab World

Hamas’s Meshal Rejects Disarmament or 'Foreign Rule'

Boys walk past the rubble of destroyed buildings in the Jabalia camp for Palestinian refugees in the northern Gaza Strip on February 8, 2026. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
Boys walk past the rubble of destroyed buildings in the Jabalia camp for Palestinian refugees in the northern Gaza Strip on February 8, 2026. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
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Hamas’s Meshal Rejects Disarmament or 'Foreign Rule'

Boys walk past the rubble of destroyed buildings in the Jabalia camp for Palestinian refugees in the northern Gaza Strip on February 8, 2026. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
Boys walk past the rubble of destroyed buildings in the Jabalia camp for Palestinian refugees in the northern Gaza Strip on February 8, 2026. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)

A senior Hamas leader said Sunday that the Palestinian movement would not surrender its weapons nor accept foreign intervention in Gaza, pushing back against US and Israeli demands.

"Criminalizing the resistance, its weapons, and those who carried it out is something we should not accept," Khaled Meshal said at a conference in Doha.

"As long as there is occupation, there is resistance. Resistance is a right of peoples under occupation ... something nations take pride in," said Meshal, who previously headed the group.

A US-brokered ceasefire in Gaza is in its second phase, which foresees that demilitarization of the territory -- including the disarmament of Hamas -- along with a gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces.

Hamas has repeatedly said that disarmament is a red line, although it has indicated it could consider handing over its weapons to a future Palestinian governing authority.

Israeli officials say that Hamas still has around 20,000 fighters and about 60,000 Kalashnikovs in Gaza.

A Palestinian technocratic committee has been set up with a goal of taking over the day-to-day governance in the battered Gaza Strip, but it remains unclear whether, or how, it will address the issue of demilitarization.

The committee operates under the so-called "Board of Peace," an initiative launched by US President Donald Trump.

Originally conceived to oversee the Gaza truce and post-war reconstruction, the board's mandate has since expanded, prompting concerns among critics that it could evolve into a rival to the United Nations.

Trump unveiled the board at the World Economic Forum in the Swiss ski resort of Davos last month, where leaders and officials from nearly two dozen countries joined him in signing its founding charter.

Alongside the Board of Peace, Trump also created a Gaza Executive Board - an advisory panel to the Palestinian technocratic committee - comprising international figures including US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, as well as former British prime minister Tony Blair.

On Sunday, Meshal urged the Board of Peace to adopt what he called a "balanced approach" that would allow for Gaza's reconstruction and the flow of aid to its roughly 2.2 million residents, while warning that Hamas would "not accept foreign rule" over Palestinian territory.

"We adhere to our national principles and reject the logic of guardianship, external intervention, or the return of a mandate in any form," Meshal said.
"Palestinians are to govern Palestinians. Gaza belongs to the people of Gaza and to Palestine. We will not accept foreign rule," he added.

Arab World

Rescue Teams Search for Survivors in Building Collapse that Killed at Least 2 in Northern Lebanon

A Lebanese flag is pictured, in the aftermath of a massive explosion, in Beirut's damaged port area, Lebanon August 17, 2020. REUTERS/Hannah McKay
A Lebanese flag is pictured, in the aftermath of a massive explosion, in Beirut's damaged port area, Lebanon August 17, 2020. REUTERS/Hannah McKay
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Rescue Teams Search for Survivors in Building Collapse that Killed at Least 2 in Northern Lebanon

A Lebanese flag is pictured, in the aftermath of a massive explosion, in Beirut's damaged port area, Lebanon August 17, 2020. REUTERS/Hannah McKay
A Lebanese flag is pictured, in the aftermath of a massive explosion, in Beirut's damaged port area, Lebanon August 17, 2020. REUTERS/Hannah McKay

At least two people were killed and four rescued from the rubble of a multistory apartment building that collapsed Sunday in the city of Tripoli in northern Lebanon, state media reported.

Rescue teams were continuing to dig through the rubble. It was not immediately clear how many people were in the building when it fell.

The bodies pulled out were of a child and a woman, the state-run National News Agency reported.

Dozens of people crowded around the site of the crater left by the collapsed building, with some shooting in the air.

The building was in the neighborhood of Bab Tabbaneh, one of the poorest areas in Lebanon’s second largest city, where residents have long complained of government neglect and shoddy infrastructure. Building collapses are not uncommon in Tripoli due to poor building standards, according to The AP news.

Lebanon’s Health Ministry announced that those injured in the collapse would receive treatment at the state’s expense.

The national syndicate for property owners in a statement called the collapse the result of “blatant negligence and shortcomings of the Lebanese state toward the safety of citizens and their housing security,” and said it is “not an isolated incident.”

The syndicate called for the government to launch a comprehensive national survey of buildings at risk of collapse.

Arab World

Israel to Take More West Bank Powers and Relax Settler Land Buys

A view of Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim, in the West Bank, Sunday, June 18, 2023. (AP)
A view of Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim, in the West Bank, Sunday, June 18, 2023. (AP)
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Israel to Take More West Bank Powers and Relax Settler Land Buys

A view of Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim, in the West Bank, Sunday, June 18, 2023. (AP)
A view of Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim, in the West Bank, Sunday, June 18, 2023. (AP)

Israel's security cabinet approved a series of steps on Sunday that would make it easier for settlers in the occupied West Bank to buy land while granting Israeli authorities more enforcement powers over Palestinians, Israeli media reported.

The West Bank is among the territories that the Palestinians seek for a future independent state. Much of it is under Israeli military control, with limited Palestinian self-rule in some areas run by the Western-backed Palestinian Authority (PA).

Citing statements by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Defense Minister Israel Katz, Israeli news sites Ynet and Haaretz said the measures included scrapping decades-old regulations that prevent Jewish private citizens buying land in the West Bank, The AP news reported.

They were also reported to include allowing Israeli authorities to administer some religious sites, and expand supervision and enforcement in areas under PA administration in matters of environmental hazards, water offences and damage to archaeological sites.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said the new measures were dangerous, illegal and tantamount to de-facto annexation.

The Israeli ministers did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The new measures come three days before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to meet in Washington with US President Donald Trump.

Trump has ruled out Israeli annexation of the West Bank but his administration has not sought to curb Israel's accelerated settlement building, which the Palestinians say denies them a potential state by eating away at its territory.

Netanyahu, who is facing an election later this year, deems the establishment of any Palestinian state a security threat.

His ruling coalition includes many pro-settler members who want Israel to annex the West Bank, land captured in the 1967 Middle East war to which Israel cites biblical and historical ties.

The United Nations' highest court said in a non-binding advisory opinion in 2024 that Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories and settlements there is illegal and should be ended as soon as possible. Israel disputes this view.