SAWT BEIRUT INTERNATIONAL

| 12 December 2024, Thursday |

Sawt Beirut International’s News Bulletin- May 21, 2021

In today’s news bulletin:

– Lawmakers’ play in UNESCO: Hariri is not accepted and Aoun is not facilitating the process.

– After a long day full of provocations, do refugees have the right to vote?

– U.S. lawmakers accuse Hezbollah of shattering Lebanon’s economy, call on Blinken to intervene.

Not long after the Syrian democracy play in Lebanon ended that a Lebanese democracy play has started; the Beirut’s UNESCO Palace “theater” has hosted the new play this time which is based on a letter sent by the President of the Republic to the Parliament.

In principle, no one can oppose what the President is demanding because the continuous cabinet stalemate is no longer accepted and it is no longer permissible for the country to remain without a government indefinitely.

It is also unanimously agreed that the Prime Minister-Designate is not exerting the required efforts to get the government stalemate out of the bottleneck and therefore, he bears the greatest responsibility regarding the governmental void the country has been witnessing since eight months.

Nonetheless, such intractable dilemma cannot be resolved by a letter sent to the Parliament and by turning the Parliament into a battlefield where the team of the President and that of the PM-Designate express contradictory positions.

The PM-Designate is in a pickle and because of that, the situation in the whole country is at an impasse. Most countries see no point in betting on Saad Hariri and so, they have forsaken him and refrained from providing him with any kind of help and support.

On a local level, he has become a hostage in the hands of the two Shiite groups who are now the only political party that supports him and insists that he shouldn’t abandon his task to form a cabinet. On the other hand, the President’s team, headed by MP Gebran Bassil is not facilitating Hariri’s task but rather, it is imposing on him many conditions and demands, rendering the cabinet formation process more complicated.

In light of this situation, what kind of outcome can we expect from the parliamentary play at the UNESCO Palace? We’re fed up with plays. We want lawmakers to represent us with all our pain and concerns. Is it too much to ask for?