PARIS,  (Reuters) - France's foreign ministry on Tuesday said it was exploring with allies whether the time had come for those spoiling efforts to break the constitutional deadlock in Lebanon to face consequences. Lebanon has had no head of state since former President Michel Aoun's term ended at the end of October, deepening institutional paralysis in a country where one of the world's worst economic crises has been festering for years.

Foreign states have historically played a part in determining the presidency's fate in a country that has been a theatre for international rivalries. Last month, representatives from France, the United States, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Qatar met in Paris to discuss how to end the political stalemate in Lebanon, though the meeting did not result in the clear backing of any one presidential candidate, according to people briefed on the meeting. "We call on the Lebanese authorities, Lebanese leaders, all the political leaders to get out of this constitutional impasse," foreign ministry spokesperson Anne-Claire Legendre told reporters in a daily briefing. "We have underlined that those who block ... could be exposed to consequences."

by Nada Maucourant Atallah - thenationalnews -- Monaco is continuing its investigation into Lebanon's billionaire caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati over allegations of money laundering, the principality's general prosecutor has confirmed exclusively to The National. This will proceed despite the Lebanese judiciary dropping its own separate probe into allegations of fraud connected with a subsidised housing loans scheme that was alleged to involve members of the Mikati family. “An investigation is currently ongoing in the Principality of Monaco and it has been entrusted to the judicial police division of the Public Security,” the Monaco General Prosecutor’s Office said. Officials could not provide further information “at this stage”, the office said.

Monaco requested mutual legal assistance in January last year from Lebanese authorities in its investigation into Mr Mikati and his relatives over allegations of money laundering in relation to the subsidised loans. Mr Mikati is connected to three companies in Monaco, including SAM M1 management, and had, according to the request, several bank accounts in the principality — which have been closed. Lebanon opened its own investigation into the housing loans case in 2019, after allegations that politicians and affluent individuals benefited from fraudulent central bank-subsidised loans. According to the allegations, these included members of the Mikati family. The file stayed for two years with Beirut's First Investigative Judge Charbel Abou Samra. But Lebanon's top prosecutor Ghassan Oueidate informed Monaco in March last year that the local investigation had been dropped the previous month. He said the case “ended with the submission of the documents to Beirut investigative judge, who issued a motion to dismiss and that this decision is definitive”, in the letter seen by the National.

Story by Madeline Coggins  foxnews.com -- After Saudi Arabia and Iran agreed to end years of hostilities Friday, one former Director of National Intelligence is sounding the alarm on the "troubling" development in the Middle East. "The end result is China is stronger, Iran is stronger. The United States and Israel are weaker and the Middle East is more vulnerable. This is a terrible development," former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe said on "Cavuto Live" Saturday. Iran and Saudi Arabia agreed Friday to end years of hostility and re-engage in diplomatic relations following previously undisclosed talks in Beijing between top security officials from the rival powers. The two nations announced the deal following four days of meetings, saying they would "resume diplomatic relations between them and re-open their embassies and missions within a period not exceeding two months."

Saudi Arabia and Iran also agreed to activate a security cooperation agreement signed in 2001 in addition to earlier agreements on trade, economy and investment. The talks in Beijing concluded an ongoing series of discussions that took place in Iraq and Oman in 2021 and 2022. Ratcliffe highlighted how under the Biden administration relations with China and the Middle East have changed. "Think about where we were two years ago, the Abraham Accords, peace in the Middle East, and an Iran that was poorer, weaker and less influential than they'd ever been. And the Saudis were likely to be the next participant in the Abraham Accords to improve relations with Israel," he said. "Two short years later, think about it, because Joe Biden pushed the Saudis away, called them a pariah state, they have now normalized relations with Iran, a country they hate, a country they've been fighting for centuries in a deal that was brokered by our number one adversary that everyone admits is our number one adversary, China." The reports concerning relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran came on the same day Chinese President Xi Jinping won an official third five-year term as president.

طرح لقاء الجمهورية خطة من خمسة بنود وطالب بأن يُعلن المرشح للانتخابات الرئاسية التزامه بها ليكون رئيساً جامعاً للبنانيين ويحمل رؤية إنقاذية للوطن تقوم على أسس ومبادئ واضحة.

وعلم "الثائر" من مصدر مقرّب من الرئيس الأسبق ميشال سليمان ، أنه لم يطرح هذه الخريطة اعتقاداً منه انها ستنفذ غداً، لكن ليفتح طريق الشجاعة للطوائف الأقل عدداً، وللمسيحيين، بأن يطالبوا بتنفيذ اتفاق الطائف والدستور، خاصة لجهة إلغاء الطائفية السياسية، لأن إلغاءها على البارد، ووفقاً لرؤية مستقبلية، هو الأفضل والأكثر حكمة.

ويضيف: فلنضع الهندسات اللازمة اليوم، طوعاً وبالتفاهم، طالما أن الدستور يضمن إلغاء الطائفية، ويحرص على مراعاة هواجس الطوائف عبر إنشاء مجلس الشيوخ تتمثّلُ فيه كل الطوائف اللبنانية.كما أنّ ترؤوس رئيس الجمهورية لهذه الهيئة الوطنية، ووضع خطةً مرحلية ، وفقاً للخطة المرحلية التي ينص الدستور على وضعها، والتي يمكن أن تمتد لسنوات، مرحلة وراء أخرى، يتم خلالها اختبار فعالية مجلس الشيوخ.
كما أن التوافق على توضيح بعض مواد الدستور، التي يكتنفها الغموض يشكّل أيضا ضمانة أساسية وإضافية.

ويعتبر الرئيس سليمان أن البند "ح" في مقدمة الدستور، الذي جعل إلغاء الطائفیة السیاسیة، هدفاً وطنياً أساسياً، یقتضي العمل على تحقیقه وفق خطة مرحلیة، وهذا كفيل بضبط الإلغاء للطائفية السياسية. ولقد نص أيضا الدستور في البند "ي" على أن "لاشرعية لأي سلطة تتناقض مع صيغة العيش المشترك" .