Lebanon’s opposition has agreed to a proposed government line-up, Hezbollah said yesterday, paving the way to end five months of tortuous negotiations following a June general election.
Hezbollah, which heads an alliance of parties supported by Syria and Iran, said in a statement that its leadership, including the head of the militant party Hassan Nasrallah, met late on Friday and agreed to join the national unity government proposed by prime minister-designate Saad Hariri.
“Those who took part in the meeting agreed to join a national unity government based on the agreements reached during negotiations,” the statement said.
“We hope that this step will be beneficial for Lebanon and its people,” it said.
An official from Hariri’s camp said they were awaiting official notification before announcing the new government.
An official with the presidency said the head of state was optimistic that the stalemate was over and an announcement was imminent.
The proposed 30-member Cabinet calls for 15 seats for the majority alliance and 10 for the opposition. The remaining five posts would be appointed by Lebanese President Michel Sleiman.
In related developments, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned recent violations of the 2006 ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah militants in Lebanon.
In a report to the Security Council circulated on Friday, Ban said he was particularly concerned about the firing of rockets from Lebanon into Israel, the discovery of an arms and ammunition depot in southern Lebanon, and explosions and a fire in that area which are still under investigation.
Ban reiterated his call for full implementation of Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the 34-day Israeli-Hezbollah war, including the disarmament of all armed groups in Lebanon, adherence to the arms embargo on Lebanon by all countries, especially those with ties to Hezbollah, demarcation of the Lebanese-Syrian border and an end to Israeli overflights.
Ban also called on Israel and Syria to respond to the provisional definition of the disputed Chebaa Farms area on Lebanon’s border with Syria’s Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, and urged Israel to withdraw from the village of Ghajar and an adjacent area that are on the Lebanese side of a UN-drawn boundary.
SUPPORT: Elon Musk’s backing for the far-right AfD is also an implicit rebuke of center-right Christian Democratic Union leader Friedrich Merz, who is leading polls German Chancellor Olaf Scholz took a swipe at Elon Musk over his political judgement, escalating a spat between the German government and the world’s richest person. Scholz, speaking to reporters in Berlin on Friday, was asked about a post Musk made on his X platform earlier the same day asserting that only the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party “can save Germany.” “We have freedom of speech, and that also applies to multi-billionaires,” Scholz said alongside Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal. “But freedom of speech also means that you can say things that are not right and do not contain
Two US Navy pilots were shot down yesterday over the Red Sea in an apparent “friendly fire” incident, the US military said, marking the most serious incident to threaten troops in over a year of US targeting Yemen’s Houthi rebels. Both pilots were recovered alive after ejecting from their stricken aircraft, with one sustaining minor injuries. However, the shootdown underlines just how dangerous the Red Sea corridor has become over the ongoing attacks on shipping by the Iranian-backed Houthis despite US and European military coalitions patrolling the area. The US military had conducted airstrikes targeting Yemen’s Houthi rebels at the
Pulled from the mud as an infant after the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004 and reunited with his parents following an emotional court battle, the boy once known as “Baby 81” is now a 20-year-old dreaming of higher education. Jayarasa Abilash’s story symbolized that of the families torn apart by one of the worst natural calamities in modern history, but it also offered hope. More than 35,000 people in Sri Lanka were killed, with others missing. The two-month-old was washed away by the tsunami in eastern Sri Lanka and found some distance from home by rescuers. At the hospital, he was
MILITANTS TARGETED: The US said its forces had killed an IS leader in Deir Ezzor, as it increased its activities in the region following al-Assad’s overthrow Washington is scrapping a long-standing reward for the arrest of Syria’s new leader, a senior US diplomat said on Friday following “positive messages” from a first meeting that included a promise to fight terrorism. Barbara Leaf, Washington’s top diplomat for the Middle East, made the comments after her meeting with Ahmed al-Sharaa in Damascus — the first formal mission to Syria’s capital by US diplomats since the early days of Syria’s civil war. The lightning offensive that toppled former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad on Dec. 8 was led by the Muslim Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which is rooted in al-Qaeda’s
RSS