SAWT BEIRUT INTERNATIONAL

| 29 March 2024, Friday |

Sawt Beirut International News Bulletin – April 6, 2021

In today’s news bulletin:

  • Three factors urged Bassil’s visit to Paris, and the government formation is mortgaged by Hezbollah
  • Syria attacked North of Lebanon, and Lebanon turns a blind eye to restoring its rights
  • Secondary class contractors aims its fiery darts at supermarkets’ rising prices

Was all the media chaos voiced yesterday regarding the visit of Gebran Bassil to Paris, was it just a smoke bomb? Probably yes, because the speech given during the day has suddenly disappeared at night. As soon as the chaos of inflated information, exaggerated analyzes and conclusions that are not based on facts and evidence, reality returned to impose itself, since it was revealed that there is no intended visit to Bassil in the near future to the French capital.

Indeed, Bassil’s visit to France was possible, although it was a very weak possibility, but it collided with three intertwining factors: The first was Bassil’s unwillingness to make his Parisian visit appear as the result of mediation by the Director General of General Security, Major General Abbas Ibrahim. This was revealed through a press statement issued by Bassil relatives. One second factor is that those seeking a visit have not been able to include on its agenda meetings with senior officials as Bassil had desired, and the matter may be closely related to the US sanctions imposed on him. The third factor is that the prime minister-designate did not show enthusiasm to meet the head of the FPM in Paris because he realizes that the visit has not been prepared as it should be, and therefore, it will not achieve the required breach in terms of government formation.

Does all this mean that things are almost back to square one? The French initiative is deadlocked once again because of Hezbollah’s position? People from within the party are well aware of the fact that Hezbollah is still betting on the government non-formation to deepen the collapse and witness the fall of state institutions. The aforementioned position might soon include the parliamentary elections scheduled for the spring of 2022 in addition to the presidential elections scheduled in the fall of the same year. This aims at reaching a founding conference that puts an end to the Taif Agreement and paves the way towards a completely new formula in terms of forces equilibrium. Will the Hezbollah Iran-backed plan and the forces of opposition succeed, leading to the collapse of the second republic? Or will the local, regional and international ambition achieve victory over that plan, in order for Lebanon to shine ?

    Source:
  • Sawt Beirut International