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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Berri re-focuses on presidential vote to protect country
2024-01-19
[An Nahar] Parliament Speaker Nabih Knobby Berri
...Speaker of the Lebanese parliament, head of the Amal Shiite party aligned with Hezbollah, a not very subtle sock puppet of the Medes and Persians...
has reportedly urged all parties to elect a president.

"Berri has directly called all the parties concerned with the presidential file to seize the opportunity to protect the country by electing a president," Ain el-Tineh sources told al-Joumhouria newspaper, in remarks published Thursday.

The source added that Berri is "always ready" for any effort that would break the presidential impasse and is discussing the presidential file in all his meetings with envoys and ambassadors.

The Speaker has encouraged the Qatar
...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi...
is to resume their presidential efforts, the source said.

An earlier report in al-Liwaa newspaper claimed that senior Lebanese officials had contacted the Qatari leadership, including during caretaker PM Najib Mikati’s meetings in Davos, asking it to send Qatari envoy Jassem bin Fahad al-Thani to Leb
...an Iranian satrapy currently ruled by Hassan Nasrallah situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozen flavors of Christians, plus Armenians, Georgians, and who knows what else? It is the home of the original Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers...
as soon as possible in order to revive the presidential election file.

Doha and the five-nation group for Lebanon -- which also comprises the U.S., La Belle France, KSA, and Egypt -- have sought to facilitate the presidential election file in Lebanon but Qatar's efforts stopped with the eruption of the Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
war.

Crisis-hit Lebanon has been without a president since Michel Aoun
...president of Leb, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hizbullah...
's term ended in October last year, with neither of the two main blocs -- Hezbollah and its opponents -- having the majority required to elect one.

La Belle France has warned Lebanon that the presidential vacancy is weighing on the country's ability to overcome its crises and to prevent a security deterioration amid risks of escalation of cross-border fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
US won't renew financial aid plan for Lebanese Army, ISF
2023-09-30
[An Nahar] A U.S. plan providing monthly financial aid to the personnel of the Lebanese Army and the Internal Security Forces will not be renewed when its six-month period expires in November, a U.S. Embassy source has been quoted as saying.

“The plan will not be renewed due to the failure to approve reforms and elect a president,” media reports quoted the source as saying.

French President Emmanuel Macron's special envoy Jean-Yves Le Drian warned Wednesday that France and its allies were losing patience after almost a year of deadlock and are now reviewing their financial aid.

Lebanon has been without a president for almost a year after ex-head of state Michel Aoun's mandate expired, with its feuding factions repeatedly failing in parliament to elect a new leader as an unprecedented economic crisis escalates in the multi-confessional former French colony.

Faced with what he described as a "denial of reality" from Lebanese officials, France and its allies the United States, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Egypt, are losing patience and could review their financial support for Lebanon, Le Drian said.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Bassil says willing to 'sacrifice president's name, not post or powers'
2023-07-31
[An Nahar] Free Patriotic Movement
Despite its name a Christian party allied with Hizbullah, neither free nor particularly patriotic...
chief Jebran Bassil said overnight that he is "willing to sacrifice" regarding the next president's identity, clarifying that he will not "sacrifice the presidential post or powers."

At an FPM event, Bassil added that the "sacrifice" would be in return for "two gains for Leb
...an Iranian colony situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozeen flavors of Christians. It is the home of Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers...
: broad administrative and financial decentralization and the trust fund."

"This is not a bargain nor a concession but is rather aimed at recovering the rights and money of the Lebanese," Bassil said.

He explained that the trust fund had been proposed by then-President Michel Aoun
...president of Leb, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hizbullah...
in an economic paper after the October 17 uprising.

"It would preserve the state's assets and ownership while they would be managed by the private sector, which would allow for improving the state's revenues, covering some of the financial gap and returning funds to depositors," Bassil clarified.

His remarks confirm media reports about the FPM's ongoing talks with Hezbollah.

"The two sides exchanged proposals for agreeing on the program and identity of the upcoming president," al-Akhbar newspaper reported on Friday.

Bassil submitted a "detailed work paper that involves an agenda for the coming period and addresses two main issues," the daily said.

"The first point is aimed at agreeing on consolidating and activating partnership in governance among all Lebanese components, with the next president enjoying the approval and support of the FPM seeing as it is the main Christian representative," al-Akhbar added.

"The second point is agreeing on key headlines for the program of the upcoming president in connection with the priorities paper that the FPM had previously proposed, while agreeing on the topics that represent main concerns for Hezbollah," the newspaper said.

Accordingly, Bassil asked Hezbollah for its approval and for "working with the rest of the allies to make practical steps aimed at paving the way for declaring a major agreement that involves the presidency," al-Akhbar added.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Aoun slams Hezbollah over 'treason accusations, threats'
2023-06-13
[An Nahar] Ex-president Michel Aoun
...president of Leb, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hizbullah...
on Monday criticized Hezbollah for launching "treason accusations and threats through newspapers."

"I did not let them down, neither in the July War, nor in keenness on the resistance nor in the confrontation against ISIS (Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
group)," Aoun said in an interview with the journalist Sami Kleib, when asked whether a mending of ties between Hezbollah and the Free Patriotic Movement
Despite its name a Christian party allied with Hizbullah, neither free nor particularly patriotic...
is possible.

"I have not said anything against them. Should my reward be treason accusations and threats through newspapers?" Aoun wondered.

Told that FPM chief Jebran Bassil has escalated his rhetoric in recent months, the ex-president said: "Jebran talks politics and we and (Hezbollah chief) Sayyed (Hassan) Nasrallah have repeatedly agreed that a political dispute does not negate the friendship."

"Is it reasonable to be accused of treason because we have merely rejected a supposed candidate?" the ex-president added.

Asked how the "problem" can be "overcome," Aoun said: "We did not start it and democracy stipulates the freedom of choice. The other party must make the first step towards the solution."

As for his recent meeting with Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Lord of the Baath...
and whether Damacus is pressing for Suleiman Franjieh’s election, Aoun said: "I did not feel any pressure and we only discussed this issue in a swift manner."

"The Syrian president has told me more than once that they do not interfere in the presidency and do not want to interfere," the president added.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Opposition officially endorses Azour for presidency
2023-06-05
[An Nahar] Opposition politicians on Sunday nominated Jihad Azour, an International Monetary Fund regional director and former minister, for president.

MP Mark Daou of the Change bloc read a statement on behalf of 32 opposition politicians, endorsing Azour after weeks of negotiations "as a candidate that is not considered provocative by any political factor in the country." The politicians belong to the Lebanese Forces
A Christian political party founded by Bashir Gemayel, who was then bumped off when he was elected president of Leb...
, the Kataeb Party and the Tajaddod bloc in addition to several independent and Change MPs.

The same MPs had previously backed another presidential candidate, parliamentarian Michel Mouawad, who on Sunday announced he was withdrawing his nomination and backing Azour. Both declarations were made at Mouawad's residence.

Azour, the IMF's Middle East and Central Asia director, served as Leb
...an Iranian colony situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozeen flavors of Christians. It is the home of Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers...
's finance minister from 2005 to 2008.

He has yet to officially announce a presidential bid.

The international community has urged Lebanese officials to fill the vacant presidency, which would allow the country, mired in a crippling economic crisis since 2019, to carry out reforms needed to unlock much needed IMF loans.

Iran-backed Hezbollah, which has a huge hold over political life in Lebanon, has endorsed the pro-Damascus Suleiman Franjieh for the presidency.

But opposition from the country's two main Christian parties, the LF and the Free Patriotic Movement
Despite its name a Christian party allied with Hizbullah, neither free nor particularly patriotic...
, means that Franjieh lacks a clear path to majority backing in the divided parliament.

Hezbollah politician Hassan Fadlallah called Azour's nomination "a waste of time," insisting that "the candidate of confrontation" will not be elected president.

Hezbollah's key Christian ally, the Free Patriotic Movement, said it would support Azour.

With no clear majority for any candidate, it is unclear when Parliament Speaker Nabih Knobby Berri
...Speaker of the Lebanese parliament, head of the Amal Shiite party aligned with Hezbollah, a not very subtle sock puppet of the Medes and Persians...
might call a new vote.

Former president Michel Aoun
...president of Leb, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hizbullah...
's term expired last October. Since then, there have been 11 parliamentary votes to try to name a new president, but bitter divisions have prevented anyone from garnering enough support to succeed Aoun.

Crisis-hit Lebanon has been run by a caretaker government with limited powers since legislative elections in May 2022 resulted in no side with a clear majority.

Link


Iraq
Former official reveals Saddam's covert support to foreign leaders
2023-05-14
Shafaq News / In an interview with Middle Eastern newspaper Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, Salem al-Jumaili, the former head of the America division in the intelligence apparatus of Iraq's Ba'ath Party, disclosed that Saddam Hussein had provided financial backing to the electoral campaigns of both French politician Jacques Chirac and late Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, aiding their victories.

al-Jumaili further divulged how Hussein's regime lent both monetary and military assistance to Lebanese General Michel Aoun during the "War of Liberation" aimed at expelling the Syrian army from Lebanon. He stated, "Saddam decided to punish the late President Hafez Al-Assad for halting the Iraqi oil pipeline that traversed Syria to Baniyas during the Iraq-Iran war, so he ordered support for Aoun, providing him with armored vehicles, ammunition, and $11 million."

The former intelligence officer also spoke of the Iraqi support extended to opponents of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's rule, after it was revealed that Gaddafi had supplied Iran with Scud missiles used to bombard Baghdad amid the Iraq-Iran war.

Additionally, al-Jumaili recounted a failed assassination attempt on Danielle Mitterrand, the wife of late French President François Mitterrand. She had been instrumental in publicizing the Halabja incident and Iraq's use of chemical weapons, prompting a decision to terminate her influence. In July 1992, during a visit to Sulaymaniyah province and while en route to the Halabja Martyrs' Monument, an explosive device was planted in her path, but she miraculously survived.
Link


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Leb supermarkets mark prices in dollars as local currency tanks
2023-03-03
[An Nahar] Supermarkets in Lebanon Hezbollahstan
...a formerly French, now an Iranian colony situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. ...
have started pricing items in U.S. dollars instead of the nose-diving local currency, after a government announcement allowing the practice in a country heavily reliant on imports.

Since late 2019, Lebanon has been facing a dramatic economic crisis that has seen poverty rates climb to reach more than 80 percent of the population, according to the United Nations
...an organization which on balance has done more bad than good, with the good not done well and the bad done thoroughly...
The local currency, now officially pegged at 15,000 to the greenback, was trading Wednesday at almost 90,000 to the dollar, compared to 60,000 in late January.

An AFP photographer said a large supermarket chain in Beirut had begun displaying prices in dollars on Wednesday, while the exchange rate of 89,000 pounds was displayed on a screen at the entrance.

Domestically produced fruit and vegetables were still priced in the local currency.

"Every week, or every day even, products are becoming more and more expensive," said Susane Zeitoun, 28, who was shopping at the supermarket.

"Now I have to calculate prices into Lebanese pounds," she added.

In February, Economy Minister Amin Salaam announced that supermarkets would be able to start pricing items in dollars, while customers could pay in dollars or Lebanese pounds at the volatile market rate.

Each store would have to clearly announce the exchange rate it was using each day, he had added.

Since the start of the crisis, stores had begun to adjust their prices in pounds, sometimes daily, to keep up with the fluctuating exchange rate -- or at times pushing prices higher.

Some restaurants and clothing shops had already begun to display prices in dollars in recent months.

Shopper Sarah Rida, 37, said that "pricing items in U.S. dollars is better".

"If a product is priced at $2, we can be sure that it will stay the same and will not increase or decrease in price from one day to the next."

Lebanon is being run by a caretaker government and is also without a president, as politicians have repeatedly failed to elect a successor to Michel Aoun
...president of Leb, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hizbullah...
, whose mandate expired at the end of October.

Authorities announced in late February that customs charges would be tripled, a move that risks pushing prices up further.

The World Bank has said that Lebanon food price inflation reached 332 percent year on year in June 2022, the worst in the world.

Link


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
LF says FPM destroyed Lebanon, Bassil subservient to Hezbollah, Assad
2023-02-12
[An Nahar] The Lebanese Forces
A Christian political party founded by Bashir Gemayel, who was then bumped off when he was elected president of Leb...
snapped back Saturday at the Free Patriotic Movement
Despite its name a Christian party allied with Hizbullah, neither free nor particularly patriotic...
in a growing war of words over an expected legislative session.

"It is insolent for the FPM to rant about its usual argument, which is keenness on the presidential post," the LF said in a statement, accusing the FPM of "deliberately ceding the presidency to the gang," in reference to Hezbollah, noting that the Iran-backed party was in charge of both "the state’s decisions and the presidency" during ex-president Michel Aoun
...president of Leb, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hizbullah...
’s tenure.

"Which legislation is necessary amid a collapse that is unprecedented in Lebanon Hezbollahstan
...Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. ...
’s history?" the LF asked.

It added that the FPM has undermined "the higher interests of Lebanon and the Lebanese" and "destroyed the republic."

The LF also charged that no one can "compete with" FPM chief Jebran Bassil in "running from the al-Muhajireen Palace (in Damascus) to Haret Hreik."
Link


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Leb: Parliament sit-in underway as more MPs support the protest
2023-01-21
[An Nahar] A sit-in inside the parliament building was still underway Friday, with more politicians joining the two independent politicians who had announced they won't leave until Speaker Nabih Knobby Berri
...Speaker of the Lebanese parliament, head of the Amal Shiite party aligned with Hezbollah, a not very subtle sock puppet of the Medes and Persians...
holds an open-ended session to elect a new president.

MPs Melhem Khalaf and Najat Saliba of the Change parliamentary bloc had begun on Thursday the open-ended sit-in inside parliament to press for an end to the presidential deadlock.

The authorities locked the doors and cut off power but after nightfall, the sit-in was still underway.

"We slept here, and we hope that today will bring new hope to Lebanon Hezbollahstan
...In 2020 Hezbollah blew up a considerable portion of Beirut and many of its inhabitants when its ammonium nitrate facility exploded. They blamed it on... somebody else. It wasn't them though. Trust them on that. And it ain't never coming to trial...
," said Saliba in a video posted on social media on Friday.

Change MPs Firas Hamdan, Cynthia Zarazir, Elias Jrade, Paula Yacoubian, Halima Kaakour, and Waddah al-Sadek and Kataeb MPs Sami Gmayyel and Elias Hankash visited Khalaf and Saliba in the evening, while journalists were not authorized to enter the building.

Members of the group posted videos showing them sitting in the dark against the light of their mobile phones, as Lebanon suffers from chronic electricity cuts of up to 23 hours a day.

The cash-strapped country for over two years has struggled with rampant power cuts. Today, households only receive about an hour of state electricity per day, with millions now relying on expensive private generator suppliers.

Khalaf on Thursday affirmed that he can easily stay in parliament even if authorities cut power off. "All Lebanese have no electricity," he said.

Parliament had convened Thursday for an 11th bid to elect a new president, but failed again to come up with a candidate.

"We will not leave," Khalaf told news hounds.

But it could be a very long wait.

The 2016 election of former president Michel Aoun
...president of Leb, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hizbullah...
followed a more than two-year vacancy at the presidential palace, as politicians made 45 failed attempt
...Curses! Foiled again!...
s to elect a new head of state.
Link


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Bassil Calls for Repatriation of Syrian Refugees
2023-01-14
[ALMANAR] Head of Free Patriotic Movement
Despite its name a Christian party allied with Hizbullah, neither free nor particularly patriotic...
Gebran Bassil
...arrogant, overbearing son-in-law of Michel Aoun, a Hezbollah suck-ass and wannabe Bashir al-Assad who plans on being president of what's left of Leb as soon as the old man's dead and the votes have been phonied up...
urged the Lebanese government on Thursday to put in place further measures to cut the number of Syrian refugees in the country.
Get'em otta here!
In an FPM conference on refugees, Bassil said that Lebanon Hezbollahstan
...a formerly French, now an Iranian colony situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. ...
must implement its plan to return the refugees and must apply local and international laws.

Bassil asked the international community to stop pressuring Lebanon, financing the displaced and making them scared of returning to their land.

"The international community must rather finance the safe return of refugees," Bassil said.

Lebanon has given shelter to more than 1 million Syrian refugees but many claim the number is far higher. The U.N. refugee agency has registered about 825,000 Syrians but stopped counting them in 2015 at the request of Lebanese authorities. Officials touted last year a plan to return 15,000 refugees a month, which has so far failed to materialize.

UNHCR says at least 76,500 Syrian refugees returned voluntarily from Lebanon since 2016, some in government-organized trips and some on their own.

Syria’s conflict that began in March 2011 has killed hundreds of thousands and displaced half the country’s pre-war population of 23 million.

Link


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Al-Rahi decries 'plot against Lebanon'
2022-12-25
[An Nahar] Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Saturday lamented that "all political indications confirm the presence of a plot against Leb
...an Iranian colony situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozeen flavors of Christians. It is the home of Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers...
aimed at causing presidential vacuum accompanied by a constitutional vacuum, which is more and more complicating the election of a president."

"Didn’t some political groups block the formation of a government prior to the end of the term of (ex-)President General Michel Aoun
...president of Leb, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hizbullah...
despite their knowledge that the incumbent government had been certainly resigned and acting in caretaker capacity and that it would create problems in the specification of its role?" al-Rahi added in his annual Christmas message.

Noting that the Maronite patriarchate is "determined to continue its struggle and efforts inside Lebanon and with the Arab and international communities to speed up the presidential election," the patriarch noted that "the regional conflict is hindering these efforts, because some want a president for them, not for Lebanon, and want a president for their project, not for the historic Lebanese project."
Link


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Geagea will never again accept a Hezbollah candidate after Aoun's 'lesson'
2022-12-09
[An Nahar] Lebanese Forces
A Christian political party founded by Bashir Gemayel, who was then bumped off when he was elected president of Leb...
leader Samir Geagea
...Geagea was imprisoned by the Syrians and their puppets for 11 years in a dungeon in the third basement level of the Lebanese Ministry of Defense. He was released after the Cedar Revolution in 2005...
said Thursday that any presidential candidate backed by Hezbollah would lead to "a further collapse."

Geagea reiterated his categorical rejection to the election of Free Patriotic Movement
Despite its name a Christian party allied with Hizbullah, neither free nor particularly patriotic...
chief Jebran Bassil or Marada leader Suleiman Franjieh.

He accused again Hezbollah and its allies of obstructing the election of a new president.

"They are obstructing (the election sessions) until the situation worsens in the country, to pressure us to accept their candidate as a better option than vacuum," Geagea said of Hezbollah. "This is unfortunately their logic."

He added that his party will never accept Hezbollah's candidate.

"We have learned from the last time we agreed on the name of General Michel Aoun
...president of Leb, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hizbullah...
that any Hezbollah candidate will lead the country to more deterioration, calamities and tragedies," Geagea said. "We will never do it again."
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