BEIRUT: Lebanon’s parliament on Thursday delayed municipal elections for a third time in two years, state media reported, as militants in the country’s south exchanged near-daily fire with Israel for over six months.
The powerful Iran-backed Hezbollah group has been trading fire with Israeli forces across the border since the day after its Palestinian ally Hamas carried out a deadly attack on Israel on October 7, triggering the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip.
Lebanon is supposed to hold municipal elections every six years, but cash-strapped authorities last held a local ballot in 2016.
Parliament approved “extending the existing municipal and elective councils’ mandate until a date no later than May 31, 2025,” despite objections from lawmakers opposed to Hezbollah, said the official National News Agency.
The bill cited “complex security, military and political circumstances following the Israeli aggression on Lebanon” and especially its south, near the border, as reasons for the delay.
Lawmakers did not set a new date for the elections, initially scheduled for 2022.
Local councils help provide basic services to residents, but their role has declined as state coffers ran dry after Lebanon’s economy collapsed in late 2019.
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri had previously said southern Lebanon could not be excluded from any upcoming ballot, after the Christian Lebanese Forces, the main party opposing Hezbollah, insisted on holding the polls on time.
More than 92,000 people have been displaced from their homes in Lebanon due to the violence, as have tens of thousands of residents of Israeli communities across the border.
Since violence began along the Israeli border on October 8, at least 380 people have been killed in Lebanon, including 72 civilians, according to an AFP tally.
Israel says 11 soldiers and eight civilians have been killed on its side of the border.
In April 2023, the Lebanese parliament had already postponed municipal elections as the deputy speaker warned holding them was “almost impossible” for the cash-strapped country after years of economic meltdown.
Lebanon has faced the prolonged financial crisis and months of border clashes essentially leaderless, without a president and headed by a caretaker government with limited powers amid deadlock between entrenched political barons.
Lebanon postpones local elections again as violence rocks south
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Lebanon postpones local elections again as violence rocks south
- Lebanon is supposed to hold municipal elections every six years
- Parliament approved “extending the existing municipal and elective councils’ mandate until a date no later than May 31, 2025,” despite objections from lawmakers opposed to Hezbollah
Second drone in 24 hours found crashed in northwest Turkiye
- The authorities have pointed the finger at Russia for an unmanned aerial vehicle discovered on Friday near the city of Izmit
ISTANBUL: A drone of unknown origin has been found in Turkiye, less than a day after another unmanned aerial vehicle of suspected Russian origin crashed in the northwest, Turkish media reported on Saturday.
According to several independent television networks and the Cumhuriyet newspaper, the drone was found in an empty field near the town of Balikesir, some three hours southwest of Istanbul.
The Turkish authorities had yet to react to the news, but the Halk TV and Haberturk broadcasters reported that the drone was transported to Ankara for analysis.
Citing farmers, several media outlets reported that the crash appeared to have taken place days ago.
The incident, the third of its kind since Monday, comes after Turkiye warned both Russia and Ukraine against letting their ongoing war spill over elsewhere in the region.
The authorities have pointed the finger at Russia for an unmanned aerial vehicle discovered on Friday near the city of Izmit, around 30 kilometers (18 miles) south of the Black Sea, which has seen strikes on ships in recent weeks.
According to the Turkish interior ministry, which has opened an investigation, the drone “is believed to be of Russian-made Orlan-10 type used for reconnaissance and surveillance purposes according to initial findings.”
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has warned against the Black Sea becoming an “area of confrontation” between Russia and Ukraine, which occupy the opposite shores of the body of water to Turkiye.
