{"id":47440,"date":"2022-01-17T17:24:14","date_gmt":"2022-01-17T17:24:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=47440"},"modified":"2022-01-17T17:24:14","modified_gmt":"2022-01-17T17:24:14","slug":"tear-gas-in-sudan-as-thousands-protest-coup-afp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=47440","title":{"rendered":"Tear gas in Sudan as thousands protest coup: AFP"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nBEIRUT: A decision by Hezbollah and the Amal Movement to end a boycott of Lebanon\u2019s Cabinet has led to speculation that Iran is making moves to control Lebanon\u2019s political system.<\/p>\n

\nLebanese Forces MP Ziad Hawat said: \u201cThe order came from Tehran, so the \u2018disruption duo\u2019 decided to set the Cabinet meetings free. These are the repercussions of external negotiations.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nHe added: \u201cThe \u2018disruption duo\u2019 pawned the country to the outside will. But the parliamentary elections are coming and the hour of reckoning is upon us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nThe two parties said on Saturday that they would take part in Cabinet meetings after a three-month boycott.<\/p>\n

\nThe decision came as a surprise to many, and positively impacted the currency rate on Sunday.<\/p>\n

\nReacting to the announcement, Prime Minister Najib Mikati said that he would convene a Cabinet meeting as soon as the Finance Ministry had sent through a draft budget.<\/p>\n

\nHe added that the decision \u201caligns with his personal repeated calls for everyone to participate in assuming the national responsibility in a way that preserves the national pact, especially during these critical times the country is going through.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nMikati\u2019s office noted the need \u201cto set a recovery plan to launch the negotiation process with the International Monetary Fund.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nSome political observers said that the two parties are facing a political stalemate and popular pressure accusing them of escalating crises.<\/p>\n

\nParliamentary elections are around the corner and the two parties \u201cwant to absorb people\u2019s resentment before the date of the said elections next May.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nOther observers linked the decision by the two parties to \u201cregional developments regarding the Vienna talks.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nThey believe that \u201cthe decision to disrupt the Cabinet meetings served an external agenda, specifically an Iranian one, and that perhaps they ended their boycott to demonstrate flexibility in the complicated negotiations.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nThe two parties said in their joint statement on Saturday: \u201cWe announce our agreement to participate in Cabinet meetings to approve the national budget and discuss the economic rescue plan, and all that concerns improving the living conditions of the Lebanese.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nThey claimed that the decision came \u201cfollowing the acceleration of events and the escalation of the internal political and economic crisis to an unprecedented level, with the collapse of the Lebanese pound\u2019s exchange rate, the decline of the public sector and the collapse of citizen income and purchasing power.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nHezbollah and Amal also mentioned in their mutual statement that their boycott was due to \u201cthe unconstitutional steps undertaken by Judge Tarek Bitar in the Beirut Port blast case \u2014 the gross legal infringements, flagrant politicization, lack of justice and lack of respect for standardization.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nInstead of Bitar presiding over the case, the two parties have requested that a parliamentary panel should look into the matter.<\/p>\n

\nThis requirement, however, has not been executed yet, as the prime minister has refused to \u201cinterfere with judicial operations,\u201d with his party firmly backing Bitar.<\/p>\n

\nPhalanges Party MP Samy Gemayel said that Hezbollah and Amal \u201cthink they owe us a favor by ending the boycott.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nHe added: \u201cThey paralyzed the country for a year to form the government they wanted and they boycotted it to prevent justice from prevailing in the \u2018crime of the century.\u2019<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThe Lebanese people are the ones paying the price. There\u2019s no work, no electricity, no heating, no bread and no medicine,\u201d said Gemayel.<\/p>\n

\nHe added: \u201cAccountability for humiliating people will be achieved through the elections.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nIn his Sunday sermon, Maronite Patriarch Bechara Al-Rahi commented on the latest development regarding Cabinet sessions.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cIn the democratic system, the procedural authority shall operate according to the powers conferred upon it by the constitution, without being subject to any illegal pressure or condition,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\nHe warned against \u201cresorting to the disruption of parliamentary and presidential elections \u2014 scheduled for next October \u2014 for suspicious personal objectives.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThe Cabinet disruption, the political escalation, the continued provocation, the use of justice to undermine the opponents and the inversion of priorities reassure neither the Lebanese people nor Lebanon\u2019s brothers and friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nInternet services were disrupted in Lebanon on Sunday because of diesel shortages, adding another essential service to the list of casualties of the country\u2019s economic crisis.<\/p>\n

\nThe Energy Ministry, however, categorically denied an Israeli Channel 12 report entitled \u201cWashington approves an agreement to supply Lebanon with Israeli gas.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nThe ministry said that \u201cthe gas supply agreement between the Lebanese government and the Egyptian government clearly states that the gas must come from Egypt, which owns large gas quantities.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThis gas will pass through Jordan, and then into Syria, which will in turn benefit from it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BEIRUT: A decision by Hezbollah and the Amal Movement to end a boycott of Lebanon\u2019s Cabinet has led to speculation that Iran is making moves to control Lebanon\u2019s political system. Lebanese Forces MP Ziad Hawat said: \u201cThe order came from Tehran, so the \u2018disruption duo\u2019 decided to set the Cabinet meetings free. These are the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spotlight_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47440","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=47440"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47440\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}