BEIRUT: This week will be decisive in efforts to form a new government in Lebanon, prime minister-designate Saad Al-Hariri said on Tuesday, adding he was “cautiously optimistic.”
Rival parties have been negotiating to form a coalition government since a national election in May, fueling concerns that a crisis is looming for the country’s heavily indebted, stagnant economy.
“Matters are positive and will become clear within two days... This week is decisive, positively or negatively,” Hariri was cited as saying in a statement from his office.
On Saturday, the leader of Lebanon’s powerful Iran-backed Hezbollah movement said “extraordinary efforts” were being made to form the government, but that two obstacles remained.
They are how to include a group of six Sunni lawmakers in the cabinet, and the distribution of government portfolios among the different political parties.
Credit ratings agency Moody’s last week downgraded Lebanon’s sovereign debt, citing the uncertain movement toward forming a government, and Lebanese bonds have suffered in recent weeks.
Lebanon is one of the world’s most indebted countries and its finance minister has said it is already in an economic crisis that has started to turn into a financial one, and hopes will not become a monetary one.
Decisive week for formation of government in Lebanon, says Saad Al-Hariri
Decisive week for formation of government in Lebanon, says Saad Al-Hariri
- Saad Al-Hariri: Matters are positive and will become clear within two days... This week is decisive, positively or negatively
- Rival parties have been negotiating to form a coalition government since a national election in May
Syria says detained senior Daesh jihadist in Damascus
- The arrest came less than two weeks after a December 13 attack killed two US soldiers
DAMASCUS: Syrian authorities have arrested a senior Daesh group official in the Damascus region in a joint operation with a US-led international coalition, a security official said on Wednesday.
Taha Al-Zoubi, also known as Abu Omar Tabiya, an Daesh leader in Damascus, was detained with several of his men, General Ahmad Al-Dalati was reported as saying by state news agency SANA.
The arrest came less than two weeks after a December 13 attack killed two US soldiers and a US civilian that Washington said was carried out by a lone Daesh gunman in central Syria’s Palmyra.
“Our specialized units, in cooperation with the General Intelligence Directorate and and International Coalition forces, carried out a precise security operation targeting” an Daesh hideout, Dalati said.
On December 20, a Syria monitor said that five Daesh members were killed in US strikes in retaliation for the December 13 attack.
It was the first such incident since the overthrow of longtime ruler Bashar Assad in December last year, and Syrian authorities said the perpetrator was a security forces member who was due to be fired for his “extremist Islamist ideas.”
