In today’s news bulletin:

• Mikati in Paris without a clear rescue plan or Gulf support
• Is France embracing Lebanon as it embraced during the days of Martyr Prime Minister Rafic Hariri?
• Iraq has started the procedures to recover its looted money .. When will Lebanon follow suit?

Who is Najib Mikati lying to? Is it on himself or on others? The head of government, who has recently returned to the Grand Serail, can promise people peace and comfort. He can suggest to the Lebanese that he is a man of reform, a fierce warrior against corruption, and that he is capable of achieving and succeeding where others stumbled and failed. But two main things prevent people from believing Mikati’s statements. First thing is that he is an integral part of the corruption system in Lebanon, but rather a symbol of it. And his scandals, from cell phones to apartment loans, give him a very advanced mark in corruption.

Man, no matter how he changes, is the son of his past, and his future depends on his present. Therefore, no one can believe that Mikati repented overnight, and transformed from a man who seizes opportunities, the state and the republic into a man free from mistakes and even sins! The second thing is that every real reform inevitably passes through the judiciary. No state can be built and prospered if its judiciary is not independent, free and impartial. Today, there is an existential battle that the Lebanese judiciary is waging against the deep state in Lebanon, which is rooted in deals and brokerages, and is implicated in the mass murder that took place in the port of Beirut on August 4, 2020.

What did Mikati do to prevent the attempt to eliminate the judiciary? Nothing. The judicial investigator, Tariq Al-Bitar, is under attack from most of the political forces, and legitimate suspicious cases are being filed against him, while the prime minister and the government are not listening! On the other hand, Mikati must know that France will not be able to offer him anything if he cannot offer the Lebanese and the world structural reforms and an independent judiciary.

Is he capable of that? Or will he hide his inability with false things that no longer deceive anyone? Mr. Mikati, the times have changed, the homeland has changed, and what is required is reform, then reform, and then reform.