Nasrallah’s Fatal Miscalculations Spell Doom For Lebanon And Hezbollah – OpEd

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By Baria Alamuddin*  Arab News-- Evidence of Lebanon’s impending collapse piles up by the day: About 230,000 citizens emigrated in the first four months of this year alone, a disproportionate number of whom are Christians. About 40 percent of Lebanon’s doctors and 30 percent of its nurses have departed; with comparable levels among teachers, lawyers, entrepreneurs and other professionals. More are looking to flee as the nation totters on the threshold of civil war, relinquishing all hopes of meaningful, rewarding futures in their beloved homeland. The UN estimates that 82 percent of citizens cannot afford essential services like healthcare and education. With routine operations costing more than a year’s salary, children unable to afford treatment are dying outside hospitals. With the international airport under threat of closure, taxi drivers, lecturers and other segments of society are threatening civil disobedience in response to their desperate situations. Soldiers and policemen on unsurvivable salaries have simply withdrawn from their positions.

As soaring sectarian and factional tensions risk triggering war, the duty of conscientious leaders is to calm the situation. Instead, we got Hassan Nasrallah frenziedly pouring gasoline on the flames, boasting that Hezbollah has 100,000 fighters ready to hurl themselves into battle. One analysis estimated that if Hezbollah actually possesses 100,000 fighters, its annual budget likely far exceeds $2 billion. Given that this is about three times what Hezbollah reportedly receives from Tehran, this either indicates that Nasrallah was grotesquely exaggerating, or was making a tacit admission that Hezbollah has been reaping billions of dollars from illegal activities, like drugs, arms and people smuggling. Nasrallah’s ugly, confrontational speech last Monday was sectarian warmongering personified: He accused Christian leaders of lying to their communities that Hezbollah has an aggressive sectarian agenda, then spent an hour aggressively threatening these communities in the most sectarian language conceivable! Anybody who previously doubted that Lebanon was on the brink of civil war now comprehends exactly which way the wind is blowing. Hidden deep underground, Nasrallah forgets that Lebanon’s population is on the brink of starvation: Hence, his threats simply bestow upon citizens the option of dying slowly, or with a quick, merciful bullet to the head.

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President Michel Sleiman: ٣ اصلاحات دستورية ضرورية وغير معقدة :

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٣ اصلاحات دستورية ضرورية وغير معقدة :
انتخاب سن ال ١٨
فصل النيابة عن الوزارة
اعادة صلاحية تفسير الدستور الى المجلس الدستوري كما نص الطائف.
حاولت ولم انجح ،
وهناك اصلاحات اخرى مهمة ينبغي مناقشتها وقد تكلمت عنها مرارا

Geagea Slams Judiciary over Summoning Following Beirut Clashes

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by english.aawsat.com -- Lebanese Forces Leader Samir Geagea has criticized the military judiciary and accused it of aligning with Hezbollah. Earlier this week, Geagea was summoned for questioning over street tension that erupted on Oct. 14 during a rally called for by Amal movement and Hezbollah to demand the removal of Tarek Bitar, the judge investigating last year’s powerful Beirut port explosion. Seven people were killed and dozens were wounded during the clashes. Fadi Akiki, a representative of the military court, had “instructed the army intelligence to summon Geagea and take his statement based on information provided by arrested LF members.”

In television remarks on Thursday, Geagea denied being informed of the summons, expressing his readiness to give his statement to Akiki, provided that the latter “listens to Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah” before him. Local media reported on Friday that State Prosecutor Ghassan Oueidat has suspended State Commissioner to the Military Court Judge Fadi Akiki’s decision to summon Geagea. However, Oueidat’s office denied the reports, noting that Akiki’s decision is “being followed up by the relevant authorities to determine whether the interrogation should happen at the Intelligence Directorate or before the judge who tasked the Intelligence Directorate with hearing the LF leader’s testimony.” “No timeframe has been set” for the authorities’ deliberations, the office added. During his television appearance, Geagea referred to Akiki as “Hezbollah’s commissioner.” “It appears that the main party in the Ain al-Remmaneh events [referring to Hezbollah] considers itself above the law, and unfortunately the military judiciary has kept up with it so far,” he remarked.

In parallel, Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rai underlined his support for the independence of the Judiciary and rejected what he described as “discretion” in dealing with the Beirut port explosion and the Tayyouneh events. Rai received on Friday Army Commander General Joseph Aoun, to whom he affirmed “absolute support for the military institution and the independence of the judiciary, and the necessity of the investigation to include all parties without discretion.” Sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that Rai “does not cover any perpetrator, and calls for justice for all,” but also stresses the need to hold all perpetrators accountable.

Lebanese president returns electoral law to parliament

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President Michel Sleiman: ان تقريب موعد الانتخابات هو امر دستوري ١٠٠/١٠٠،

By NAJIA HOUSSARI -- arabnews.com -- BEIRUT: Lebanese President Michel Aoun has sent a law amending legislative election rules back to parliament for reconsideration, the presidency said in a statement. Aoun did not sign the law, to which parliament introduced some amendments. He has requested that these amendments be reconsidered. Aoun’s objection comes after the Free Patriotic Movement bloc raised its opposition to holding elections in March instead of May because it “narrows its margins of action.” During the legislative session of Oct. 19, the bloc also objected to proposals to change the expatriate voting formula by canceling the six allocated seats and allowing expatriates to vote for the electoral lists. The FPM sought to allocate these six seats in the electoral law, provided that voting for these representatives would take place in the 2022 elections. Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri called on the parliamentary committees to convene next Tuesday to discuss Aoun’s response to the electoral law. Observers described these developments as a sign of a political struggle for the presidency. The parliament to be elected in March is expected to pick the new president after Aoun’s term ends in October.

In the decree in which he requested a review of the amendments, Aoun said that “shortening the constitutional deadline for the elections could prevent voters from being able to exercise their electoral right due to the natural and climatic factors that often prevail in March, making it impossible for voters to reach their polling stations, not to mention the cost of transportation and the inability to supply polling stations with electricity.” He added: “This could also prevent voters residing outside Lebanon from exercising their political right preserved in the current electoral law by voting for their representatives in the electoral district designated for non-residents.” The president said that the amendments to the law deprive the right to vote from 10,685 citizens, who would reach the age of 21 between Feb. 1 and March 30, 2022. Zeina Helou, an elections expert, told Arab News: “Aoun is trying to pull strings in order to later accuse the other political parties of preventing him from carrying out the reforms he wanted.” She added: “Aoun and his political team prefer to gain more time to conduct the elections rather than move the date up. “Freezing the voter lists will deprive new voters who would soon turn 21 from the right to vote, and this may be a reason to appeal before the Constitutional Council.”

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سليمان: ضغط سياسي هائل على الجسم القضائي

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سليمان: ضغط سياسي هائل على الجسم القضائي

وطنية - استقبل الرئيس العماد ميشال سليمان في دارته في اليرزة، وفدا من "الجبهة السيادية من أجل لبنان".

وشدد سليمان أمام الوفد على "أهمية رص الصفوف السيادية للحؤول دون تغيير وجه لبنان ومنع انسلاخه عن محيطه العربي"، داعيا إلى "ضرورة تطبيق الدستور وتحصينه من خلال تحييد لبنان عن صراعات المحاور وتطبيق القرارات الدولية التي تعزز سيادته على كامل أراضيه".

كما حذر من "خطورة الكيل بمكيالين من خلال الضغط السياسي الهائل الذي يمارس على الجسم القضائي في تفجير 4 اب وأخيرا في حادثة الطيونة المؤسفة، التي أتت كاستكمال لمحاولة تمييع التحقيق في تفجير مرفأ بيروت"

Oueidat's office denies news on suspending Geagea's hearing

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NNA - The press office of State Prosecutor Ghassan Oueidat on Friday denied news claiming that he had frozen the decision of the government commissioner before the military court, judge Fadi Akiki, to hear the testimony of Lebanese Forces party leader, Samir Geagea. "The news are untrue," Oueidat's office said, explaining that judge Akiki received a notice on tasking the Army Intelligence Directorate with listening to Geagea. He added that such notice is being discussed with the concerned authorities to determine whether the interrogation shall take place at the Intelligence office or before the commissioned judge.