Hezbollah should have no role in Lebanon’s future, says billionaire son of Rafik Hariri

Bahaa Hariri, right, the eldest son of slain Lebanese statesman Rafik Hariri, talking to Arab News' talk show Frankly Speaking in Dubai on Jan. 23, 2021. (AN Photo)
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Updated 24 January 2021
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Hezbollah should have no role in Lebanon’s future, says billionaire son of Rafik Hariri

  • Bahaa Hariri said an alliance was needed to implement the unfinished business of the Taif Agreement
  • Says Saudi Arabia has been a 'true friend' to Lebanon

DUBAI: Bahaa Hariri, billionaire businessman and eldest son of slain Lebanese statesman Rafik Hariri, said on Saturday that Hezbollah should have no role in Lebanon’s future and that he would “absolutely not” support his younger brother, a minister, if he became part of a Hezbollah-influenced government, during a televised interview on Frankly Speaking.

Hariri, who blames Iran-backed Hezbollah for the explosion that killed his father, discussed ways forward for Lebanon in a wide-ranging interview, and said he had “stark political differences” with his brother.

Hariri instead called for a broad alliance — a “super majority” — to coalesce around a plan to agree on the way forward for Lebanon.

Such an alliance is needed to implement the unfinished business of the Taif Agreement, the peace deal brokered by Saudi Arabia 30 years ago, Hariri said.

“We have to make sure that across the sectarian divide, the forces of moderation go hand in hand to put (together) a complete comprehensive plan — whether it’s an economic plan, a COVID-19 plan, a constitutional plan, a judiciary plan, or a security plan,” he said, and added that Lebanon was “at the precipice.”

“We seek the full support of Saudi Arabia to make sure of the full implementation of the Taif Accord. It is key for us that Saudi Arabia helps us out and supports us in this. That's the key,” he said.

The Taif Agreement, signed in 1989 under Saudi auspices at the end of a bitter civil war, had never been fully implemented, Bahaa said, but remained as a blueprint to achieve progress in the country. 

“If we are going to come to the Arab world and the international community, they’ll tell us you have an accord, but three-quarters of it hasn’t been executed,” he said.

“If we want a new accord, it may take us another 10 years and maybe half a million dead.”

“We need to make sure that this accord is executed to the letter: The separation of religion from the executive and the legislative branch; the establishment of a senate that protects minorities; the establishment of an independent judiciary; and an electoral law that meets the aspirations of all Lebanese. And that we have a new election,” he said.

 

 

Bahaa also clarified he had no plans to put himself forward as a possible leader of Lebanon as it continued months-long attempts to form a new administration. 

“Today, we don't have a civil war - we have complete mismanagement of a configuration that is in complete divorce. That configuration, of course, is Hezbollah, and the warlords and whoever supported them.

“The situation is only getting worse and that's why we believe that the economic plan and the entire plan that we're putting together has to be around a non-sectarian government, a technocratic government that takes the agenda moving forward.”

By the same token, Bahaa said there should be no role for Iran-backed Hezbollah in the new agenda, and castigated Iran for its destructive interference in Lebanon’s affairs.

He contrasted the part Iran has played with the role played by Saudi Arabia, which he said had been a “true friend” of Lebanon. “Saudi Arabia has done a lot for Lebanon. It has helped us with the Taif Accord, and on political stability. It has helped us in putting billions of dollar deposits after Taif to stabilize the currency,” he said.

“It was always in the lead in encouraging other GCC nations in pouring foreign direct investment in the Central Bank to stabilize Lebanon, and encourage foreign direct investments from the Arab world to invest in Lebanon.”


RSF drone strike kills six in Sudan hospital: army source

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RSF drone strike kills six in Sudan hospital: army source

“The militia launched a drone strike on the Social Insurance Hospital, killing six and wounding 12,” an army source said
A medical source at El-Obeid Hospital, the city’s main facility, confirmed the toll

KHARTOUM: Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces bombarded El-Obeid on Friday, killing six people in a hospital in the key southern city, medical and army sources said.

“The militia launched a drone strike on the Social Insurance Hospital, killing six and wounding 12, simultaneously attacking residential areas of the city with heavy artillery,” an army source told AFP, adding that the bombardment had also hit a second hospital in the city center.

A medical source at El-Obeid Hospital, the city’s main facility, confirmed the toll, adding that the Social Insurance Hospital had been forced shut “due to damage” sustained in the drone strike.

El-Obeid, a strategic city 400 kilometers (250 miles) southwest of Khartoum which is the capital of North Kordofan state, was besieged by the RSF for nearly two years before the regular army broke the siege in February.

It was one of a series of counteroffensives that also saw the army recapture Khartoum, but El-Obeid has continued to come under RSF bombardment.

The city is a key staging post on the army’s supply route to the west, where the besieged city of El-Fasher is the only state capital in the vast Darfur region still under its control.

The RSF and the army have clashed repeatedly along the road between El-Obeid and El-Fasher in recent weeks.

On Thursday, the paramilitaries said they retaken the town of Al-Khoei, around 100 kilometers (60 miles) west of El-Obeid, after the army recaptured it earlier this month.

The war between army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan and his former deputy, RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, has killed tens of thousands of people and uprooted 13 million since it erupted in April 2023.

The United Nation says the conflict has created the world’s biggest hunger and displacement crises.

It has also effectively split Sudan in two, with the army holding the center, east and north, while the paramilitaries and their allies control nearly all of Darfur and parts of the south.

Since losing Khartoum in March, the RSF has adopted a two-prong strategy: long-range drone strikes on army-held cities accompanied by a counteroffensive in the south.

On Thursday, the paramilitaries also announced they had recaptured Dibeibat, in South Kordofan state some 100 kilometers (60 miles) south of El-Obeid, another town that the army had retaken earlier this month.

Swathes of South Kordofan are controlled by a rebel group allied with the RSF, Abdelaziz Al-Hilu’s faction of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North.

Israel minister says ‘we will build Jewish Israeli state’ in West Bank

Updated 5 min 3 sec ago
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Israel minister says ‘we will build Jewish Israeli state’ in West Bank

  • “This is a decisive response to the terrorist organizations that are trying to harm and weaken our hold on this land,” Katz said
  • Katz was speaking during a visit to the Sa-Nur settlement outpost in the northern West Bank

JERUSALEM: Defense Minister Israel Katz vowed on Friday to build a “Jewish Israeli state” in the occupied West Bank, a day after the government announced the creation of 22 new settlements in the Palestinian territory.

Israeli settlements in the West Bank, seen as a major obstacle to lasting peace, are regularly condemned by the United Nations as illegal under international law, and Thursday’s announcement drew sharp foreign criticism.

“This is a decisive response to the terrorist organizations that are trying to harm and weaken our hold on this land — and it is also a clear message to (French President Emmanuel) Macron and his associates: they will recognize a Palestinian state on paper — but we will build the Jewish Israeli state here on the ground,” Katz was quoted as saying Friday in a statement from his office.

“The paper will be thrown into the trash bin of history, and the State of Israel will flourish and prosper.”

Katz was speaking during a visit to the Sa-Nur settlement outpost in the northern West Bank.

Sa-Nur was evacuated in 2005 as part of Israel’s disengagement from Gaza, promoted by then prime minister Ariel Sharon.

Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967.

During a visit to Singapore on Friday, French President Macron asserted that recognition of a Palestinian state, with some conditions, was “not only a moral duty, but a political necessity.”

An international conference meant to resurrect the idea of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is set to take place in June at the UN headquarters in New York.

A diplomat in Paris close to preparations for the conference said it should pave the way for more countries to recognize a Palestinian state.

Macron said in April that France could recognize a Palestinian state in June.

Following Israel’s announcement of the new settlements on Thursday, Britain called the move a “deliberate obstacle” to Palestinian statehood, while UN chief Antonio Guterres’s spokesman said it pushed efforts toward a two-state solution “in the wrong direction.”


11 Sudanese migrants killed in a car crash in the Libya desert, authorities say

Updated 21 min 55 sec ago
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11 Sudanese migrants killed in a car crash in the Libya desert, authorities say

  • Authorities say 11 Sudanese migrants and a Libyan driver were killed in a car crash in the desert in Libya
  • The dead included three women and two children. A 65-year-old man and his 10-year-old son were also wounded in the crash
CAIRO: Eleven Sudanese migrants and a Libyan driver were killed Friday in a car crash in the desert in Libya, authorities said, the latest tragedy involving Sudanese fleeing a civil war in their home country.
The crash between the migrants’ vehicle and a truck happened early Friday in the desert, 90 kilometers (56 miles) north of the Libyan town of Kufra, the town’s Ambulance and Emergency Service said in a statement.
The dead included three women and two children, the service’s director Ibrahim Abu Al-Hassan told The Associated Press.
A 65-year-old man and his 10-year-old son were also wounded in the crash, he added.
It was the latest deadly incident involving Sudanese migrants in the Libyan desert.
Earlier this month, seven Sudanese were found dead after their vehicle broke down in the desert. The vehicle broke down in a path used by traffickers between Chad and Libya, leaving 34 migrants on board stranded for several days in the desert.
Libya was plunged into chaos following a NATO-backed uprising that toppled and killed longtime autocrat Muammar Qaddafi in 2011.
It has become a main transit point for migrants fleeing war and poverty in Africa and the Middle East to seek better lives in Europe. The country shares borders with six nations and has a long coastline along the Mediterranean.
Human traffickers have benefited from more than a decade of instability, smuggling migrants across Libya’s borders with six nations, including Chad, Niger, Sudan Egypt, Algeria and Tunisia.
Thousands of Sudanese have fled to Libya since April 2023 after simmering tensions between the Sudanese military and a powerful paramilitary group exploded into street fighting across the country.
The conflict in Sudan has turned into a civil war that killed thousands people, displaced over 14 million, and pushed parts of the county into famine.

Egypt denies court ruling threatens historic monastery

Updated 30 May 2025
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Egypt denies court ruling threatens historic monastery

  • A court in Sinai ruled on that the monastery ‘is entitled to use’ the land, which ‘the state owns as public property’
  • Archbishop Ieronymos of Athens called the court ruling ‘scandalous’

CAIRO: Egypt has denied that a controversial court ruling over Sinai’s Saint Catherine monastery threatens the UNESCO world heritage landmark, after Greek and church authorities warned of the sacred site’s status.

A court in Sinai ruled on Wednesday in a land dispute between the monastery and the South Sinai governorate that the monastery “is entitled to use” the land, which “the state owns as public property.”

President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi’s office defended the ruling Thursday, saying it “consolidates” the site’s “unique and sacred religious status,” after the head of the Greek Orthodox church in Greece denounced it.

Archbishop Ieronymos of Athens called the court ruling “scandalous” and an infringement by Egyptian judicial authorities of religious freedoms.

He said the decision means “the oldest Orthodox Christian monument in the world, the Holy Monastery of Saint Catherine in Mount Sinai, now enters a period of severe trial — one that evokes much darker times in history.”

El-Sisi’s office in a statement said it “reiterates its full commitment to preserving the unique and sacred religious status of Saint Catherine’s monastery and preventing its violation.”

The monastery was established in the sixth century at the biblical site of the burning bush in the southern mountains of the Sinai peninsula, and is the world’s oldest continually inhabited Christian monastery.

The Saint Catherine area, which includes the eponymous town and a nature reserve, is undergoing mass development under a controversial government megaproject aimed at bringing in mass tourism.

Observers say the project has harmed the reserve’s ecosystem and threatened both the monastery and the local community.

Archbishop Ieronymos warned that the monastery’s property would now be “seized and confiscated,” despite “recent pledges to the contrary by the Egyptian President to the Greek Prime Minister.”

Greek Foreign Minister Giorgos Gerapetritis contacted his Egyptian counterpart Badr Abdelatty on Thursday, saying “there was no room for deviation from the agreements between the two parties,” the ministry’s spokesperson said.

In a statement to Egypt’s state news agency, the foreign ministry in Cairo later said rumors of confiscation were “unfounded,” and that the ruling “does not infringe at all” on the monastery’s sites or its religious and spiritual significance.

Greek government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis said “Greece will express its official position ... when the official and complete content of the court decision is known and evaluated.”

He confirmed both countries’ commitment to “maintaining the Greek Orthodox religious character of the monastery.”


Israel aid blockage making Gaza ‘hungriest region on earth’, UN office says

Updated 30 May 2025
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Israel aid blockage making Gaza ‘hungriest region on earth’, UN office says

BERLIN: Israel is blocking all but a trickle of humanitarian aid from entering Gaza, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said, with almost no ready-to-eat food entering what its spokesperson described as “the hungriest place on earth.”
Spokesperson Jens Laerke said only 600 of 900 aid trucks had been authorized to get to Israel’s border with Gaza, and from there a mixture of bureaucratic and security obstacles made it all but impossible to safely carry aid into the region.
“What we have been able to bring in is flour,” he told a regular news conference on Friday. “That’s not ready to eat, right? It needs to be cooked... 100 percent of the population of Gaza is at risk of famine.”
Tommaso della Longa, a spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, added that half of its medical facilities in the region were out of action for lack of fuel or medical equipment.