In today’s news bulletin:
– Mikati meets Blinken in Glasgow… and Bahrain calls on its citizens to leave Lebanon immediately
– Qatar gets into the Gulf mediation line, and Mikati’s government towards a caretaking task
– Judge Bitar: I will not concede the port file, and threats will not push me back.

Who is Najib Mikati fooling? Himself or us…i.e., the Lebanese? The question may seem weired, but at the same time it is legitimate. Since when was the presidency of the government just a “shield” for things that happen and are cooked in public and behind the scenes, Without the decision of the “third chair’s” owner? Since September 10, when Mikati has officially become prime minister, he has not been able to achieve a single significant achievement. Of course, the reason is not related to him alone, but to the circumstances surrounding the formation of the government and its aftermath. On September the tenth, decrees were issued to form the government, that is, less than two months ago, and since that day, misfortunes have continued in the country, without Mikati being able to do anything to prevent them. From the crisis of the judicial investigator, Tariq Bitar, to the crisis of Tayouneh – Ain al-Rummaneh, reaching the crisis of Georges Qordahi, three consecutive major crises, without Mikati playing any role in addressing them.
His government entered the coma stage, and no longer convenes, after the Shiite duo’s ministers decided not to participate in any cabinet meeting before the “suspension” of the judicial investigator. So, what did Najib Mikati do to avoid the government’s failure? Nothing, this led the country to the Tayouneh-Ain El-Remmaneh clashes, and because unlocked doors are easy to open, each Minister acted on his own without any refrains, and the government was scattered without its president having a decisive wordd in it. The prrof is that Mikati asked for Patriarch Rahi’s mediation to intervene with Qardahi and convince him to resign. Is this the performance of a prime minister? Is it possible to rely on a government whose prime minister cannot instruct his ministers, but rather needs a mediator to convince them of the higher Lebanese interest? For all these reasons, it may be best for Mikati to resign, in order to save his face from a catastrophic failure, and so that he does not turn into a mere clerk for Hezbollah and its ministers. So, will he do it before it’s too late?