BEIRUT: Lebanese parliament speaker Nabih Berri said on Saturday he would not call for a session to elect a new president until the legislature passes reforms that are preconditions for an International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout.
An IMF deal is seen as the only way for Lebanon to recover from a financial meltdown that has plunged the country into its most destabilising crisis since the 1975-90 civil war.
President Michel Aoun’s six-year term ends on Oct. 31, and top politicians have voiced concern about no successor being found — warning of even greater institutional deadlock given that Lebanon has also been without a fully functioning government since May.
“I will not call for a presidential election session until after the reform laws required by the IMF have been adopted,” Berri said during a meeting with journalists at his Beirut residence, in comments confirmed to Reuters by his office.
He said parliament should work to pass the reform laws in August, pointing to the urgent need for the measures.
Berri, who has held his post for nearly three decades, said on Friday that a “miracle” would be needed for a government to be formed anytime soon. He did not elaborate.
Under the constitution, the president issues the decree appointing a new prime minister based on binding consultations with MPs, and must co-sign on the formation of any new cabinet.
In April, Lebanon reached a staff-level agreement with the IMF for a $3 billion bailout but a full deal is conditional on the passage of bills including capital controls, banking restructuring legislation and the 2022 budget.
Lebanon’s constitution says the speaker must convene parliament “one month at least and two months at most before the expiration of the term of office of the President of the Republic.”
Failing that, the chamber meets automatically on the 10th day preceding the term’s expiration, the constitution says.
Aoun came to power after a 29-month presidential vacuum in which parliament was unable to agree on electing a president. The stalemate ended with a series of deals that secured victory for Aoun and his powerful Iran-backed ally Hezbollah.
Aoun is limited to one term, and major political parties have not announced any agreement on his successor.
Lebanon parliament speaker says no presidential vote without IMF laws
https://arab.news/cs4ga
Lebanon parliament speaker says no presidential vote without IMF laws
- An IMF deal is seen as the only way for Lebanon to recover from a financial meltdown
- "I will not call for a presidential election session until after the reform laws required by the IMF have been adopted," Berri said
Almost 700,000 displaced in Lebanon as war enters second week
- Lebanon has been pulled deep into the war in the Middle East since Hezbollah opened fire to avenge the killing of Iran’s supreme leader
BEIRUT/JERUSALEM: Escalating hostilities have forced nearly 700,000 people to flee their homes in Lebanon over the past week, a UN agency said on Monday, as the war between Israel and the Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah entered a second week.
Lebanon has been pulled deep into the war in the Middle East since Hezbollah opened fire to avenge the killing of Iran’s supreme leader, igniting an Israeli offensive which has killed nearly 500 people in Lebanon, according to Lebanese authorities, with the death toll rising by around 100 a day.
On Monday, Israeli strikes sent columns of smoke billowing from Beirut’s Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs, and over the hilltops of southern Lebanon.
Security sources in Lebanon said Israeli airstrikes hit five branches of a financial institution run by Hezbollah, Al-Qard Al-Hassan, in the southern suburbs after Israel announced it would act against it.
Hezbollah fired missiles deep into Israel, setting off air raid sirens in central Israel and its commercial hub Tel Aviv, as interception blasts sounded as far as Jerusalem.
‘Children are being killed’
The Israeli military has in recent days ordered people out of the southern suburbs, a swathe of south Lebanon, and parts of the eastern Bekaa Valley region — all areas that have served as political and security strongholds of Shiite Muslim Hezbollah.
“Mass displacement across Lebanon has forced nearly 700,000 people – including around 200,000 children – from their homes, adding to the tens of thousands already uprooted from previous escalations,” Edouard Beigbeder, UNICEF regional director, said in a statement.
“Children are being killed and injured at a horrifying rate, families are fleeing their homes in fear, and thousands of children are now sleeping in cold and overcrowded shelters,” he said.
Lebanon’s Health Ministry reported on Sunday that the dead in Lebanon included at least 83 children and 42 women. The toll does not otherwise distinguish between combatants and civilians.
An Israeli military official said that the evacuation orders were a legal obligation meant to keep civilians out of harm’s way before attacks on Hezbollah targets.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz, visiting his military’s northern command on Monday, said the mass evacuations presented an opportunity “to make this area even safer.”
The Israeli military announced on Sunday that two of its soldiers had been killed in southern Lebanon, its first fatalities of the conflict. No fatalities have been reported in Israel as a result of Hezbollah rocket and drone attacks.
Lebanon, with a population of some 6 million, has turned its largest sports venue, the Camille Chamoun Stadium in Beirut, into a displacement center. On Monday, families sifted through boxes of donated clothes, pulling out coats and sweaters to help them bear the cold weather. Tents have gone up across the city.
“We hope this crisis doesn’t last,” Naji Hammoud, the director general of Lebanon’s sports facilities, told Reuters.
More than 1 million people were forced to flee their homes in Lebanon during a war between Hezbollah and Israel in 2024.
Israel sent more troops into Lebanon
At least four people were hurt in central Israel on Monday after Hezbollah fired missiles at what it said was a military base south of Tel Aviv.
Earlier, Hezbollah announced attacks including a rocket salvo targeting the town of Kiryat Shmona in northern Israel, and a rocket attack on a gathering of Israeli soldiers and military vehicles in south Lebanon near the village of Al-Adaissah.
Air raid sirens sounded in Israeli towns and villages near the border, sending people fleeing to their shelters. There were no reports of civilian casualties in those areas.
The Israeli military has sent more troops into southern Lebanon since the start of the war, establishing what it described as forward defensive positions to guard against Hezbollah attacks into Israel.
