{"id":20085,"date":"2018-10-27T23:23:18","date_gmt":"2018-10-27T23:23:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=20085"},"modified":"2018-10-27T23:23:18","modified_gmt":"2018-10-27T23:23:18","slug":"oman-offers-help-in-israeli-palestinian-peace-efforts-oman-minister","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=20085","title":{"rendered":"Oman offers help in Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts: Oman minister"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nBEIRUT: The new sanctions signed by US President Donald Trump against Hezbollah were no surprise for the people of Lebanon, but they are being imposed when Lebanon has been suffering from a government vacuum for five months.<\/p>\n

\nEconomist Louis Hobeika told Arab News: \u201cLebanon was expecting these sanctions, yet the country\u2019s officials did not preempt it by forming a government to deal with this matter.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThere is neither a government nor an active diplomacy \u2014 as if Lebanon was nonexistent,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\nHobeika said: \u201cThe sanctions have not been clarified, nor has the Lebanese Embassy in Washington sought to find out their details and explain them to us. Do they include everyone who has business relations with Hezbollah? Will they affect everyone who appears on Hezbollah\u2019s Al-Manar TV?\u201d<\/p>\n

\nHobeika said that Lebanon as a whole will be affected by the sanctions.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cNo area fully belongs to Hezbollah,\u201d he said, \u201cthe southern suburb of Beirut is not confined to Hezbollah, so how will the sanctions apply here?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\u201cI believe it is difficult to punish Hezbollah without punishing all of Lebanon,\u201d Hobeika said. \u201cIt is true that Hezbollah\u2019s supporters will be very distressed by the sanctions and might become more loyal to the party, but the issue is a big challenge for Lebanon. If Hezbollah gets the Ministry of Health in the new government, this ministry will deal with all countries, so will the sanctions affect those countries as well?\u201d<\/p>\n

\nFormer MP Fares Souaid, member of the anti-Hezbollah meeting of Saydet El-Jabal, told Arab News that the new sanctions are part of a series of sanctions.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThere is a US decision to impose sanctions on Iran and its security and military affiliates, including Hezbollah, and turn the party into a burden on the Lebanese after Hezbollah has come forward as a security guarantee for Lebanon,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\nSouaid said the sanctions will distress Hezbollah\u2019s supporters, highlighting that \u201cHezbollah might be seeking to get the Health Ministry in the new government in order to circumvent the sanctions.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\u201cHezbollah is trying, but this will stifle and reflect on Lebanon, and the Lebanese people will pay the price,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\nPolitical activist Ali Al-Amin, the director of Janoubia news website, said: \u201cI have acquainted myself with the sanctions and they target not only Hezbollah, but also its allies and everyone collaborating with it. They are also strict with governments and official bodies.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cMy question here is: How will the Syrian regime deal with Hezbollah, which is considered an ally of Syria? And how will the Lebanese government deal with Hezbollah in the future?\u201d<\/p>\n

\nAl-Amin added: \u201cAre these sanctions for implementation? The US president has the power to take action against states and official bodies without consulting with Congress; therefore, this issue will cause chaos and a collapse in Lebanon, and its outcomes will be disastrous.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cIs the purpose of the sanctions to embarrass the Lebanese government and state? In the past, there had been some kind of leniency with previous sanctions and there were efforts to contain them. The current sanctions, on the other hand, are telling the Lebanese that they have to take responsibility.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThese sanctions are serious and affect municipalities with members affiliated with Hezbollah as well as boards of directors.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nNevertheless, Al-Amin believes those sanctions are discretionary. \u201cIf it were up to Trump or the US Treasury to decide who to punish, this means the matter may be subject to a US political balance, so they will either turn a blind eye or make the punishment harsher,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThis is an additional way to pressure Hezbollah\u2019s allies and the Lebanese, which requires the Lebanese government to first explain the sanctions and then reconsider the state-microstate duality, which must end with these sanctions.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BEIRUT: The new sanctions signed by US President Donald Trump against Hezbollah were no surprise for the people of Lebanon, but they are being imposed when Lebanon has been suffering from a government vacuum for five months. Economist Louis Hobeika told Arab News: \u201cLebanon was expecting these sanctions, yet the country\u2019s officials did not preempt…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":20086,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20085"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20085\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}