BEIRUT: Lebanon’s top Christian cleric on Thursday reiterated his call for the country’s politicians to come together to form a new government.
Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros Al-Rai wants an international conference on the issue that would protect Lebanon, the Taif Agreement, “and equality,” but his sermons are falling on deaf ears.
The country’s lawmakers have failed to agree on a new administration since the last one resigned after the devastating Aug. 4 port explosion in Beirut.
There has also been a sharp increase in tension between President Michel Aoun and Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri.
“We have reached a point where it is impossible for us to communicate or reach an agreement,” Al-Rai said on Thursday.
“We must diagnose our problem and treat it based on three constants: The Taif Agreement, the constitution, and the Charter. All the country’s problems are caused by foreign interventions.”
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah rejected Rai’s proposition, calling it “the internationalization and cover for a new occupation. Nobody messes with us,” he said.
Nasrallah’s words sparked criticism from Christian parties on social media, and several Arab and foreign diplomats visited Al-Rai to voice their support for his proposal.
“There is a need to properly implement the Taif Agreement, which guarantees the national unity and civil peace of the country,” Saudi Arabia’s Ambassador to Lebanon Walid bin Abdullah Bukhari said.
Delegations from the Lebanese Forces, the Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) and other opposing parties also visited the patriarch.
“We are living in hell as a result of drawing Lebanon into the Iranian-American conflict,” Lebanese Forces MP Antoine Habshi said.
“This makes it imperative to resort to the international community as Lebanon is being held as a hostage.”
Former Information Minister Ghazi Aridi, a PSP member, said Lebanon’s president does not want Hariri as prime minister.
He also dismissed efforts by the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), led by Aoun’s son-in-law MP Gebran Bassil, to be included in the government’s formation.
“Bassil’s insistence on having the bloc third in the government is a failed attempt,” Aridi said. “There will not be any third.”
An FPM delegation also met with Al-Rai on Thursday, while Bassil spoke on the phone with the patriarch.
MP Roger Azar reiterated the FPM’s demands and said: “We informed the patriarch of the FPM’s readiness to discuss any suggestion within the constitutional norms and terms, and on the basis of a comprehensive national partnership.”
Former MP Ahmed Fatfat said any attack against Al-Rai just solidifies his position as an important reference in the country.
“Al-Rai is waging a basic and clear battle and has the support of all political parties and communities in Lebanon,” Fatfat said. “Intimidation attempts are useless.”
Lebanon’s top Christian cleric calls for international conference
https://arab.news/y3253
Lebanon’s top Christian cleric calls for international conference
- Arab and foreign diplomats visit patriarch to voice support for his proposal
Fledgling radio station aims to be ‘voice of the people’ in Gaza
- The electricity crisis is one of the most serious and difficult problems in the Gaza Strip, says Shereen Khalifa Broadcaster
DEIR EL-BALAH: From a small studio in the central city of Deir El-Balah, Sylvia Hassan’s voice echoes across the Gaza Strip, broadcast on one of the Palestinian territory’s first radio stations to hit the airwaves after two years of war.
Hassan, a radio host on fledgling station “Here Gaza,” delivers her broadcast from a well-lit room, as members of the technical team check levels and mix backing tracks on a sound deck. “This radio station was a dream we worked to achieve for many long months and sometimes without sleep,” Hassan said.
“It was a challenge for us, and a story of resilience.”
Hassan said the station would focus on social issues and the humanitarian situation in Gaza, which remains grave in the territory despite a US-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas since October.
“The radio station’s goal is to be the voice of the people in the Gaza Strip and to express their problems and suffering, especially after the war,” said Shereen Khalifa, part of the broadcasting team.
“There are many issues that people need to voice.” Most of Gaza’s population of more than 2 million people were displaced at least once during the gruelling war.
Many still live in tents with little or no sanitation.
The war also decimated Gaza’s telecommunications and electricity infrastructure, compounding the challenges in reviving the territory’s local media landscape. “The electricity problem is one of the most serious and difficult problems in the Gaza Strip,” said Khalifa.
“We have solar power, but sometimes it doesn’t work well, so we have to rely on an external generator,” she added.
The station’s launch is funded by the EU and overseen by Filastiniyat, an organization that supports Palestinian women journalists, and the media center at the An-Najah National University in Nablus, in the occupied West Bank.
The station plans to broadcast for two hours per day from Gaza and for longer from Nablus. It is available on FM and online.
Khalifa said that stable internet access had been one of the biggest obstacles in setting up the station, but that it was now broadcasting uninterrupted audio.
The Gaza Strip, a tiny territory surrounded by Israel, Egypt, and the Mediterranean Sea, has been under Israeli blockade even before the attack on Oct. 7, 2023, which sparked the war. Despite the ceasefire, Israel continues to strictly control the entry of all goods and people to the territory.
“Under the siege, it is natural that modern equipment necessary for radio broadcasting cannot enter, so we have made the most of what is available,” she said.
