thearabweekly.com — CAIRO–Lebanon’s foreign minister said on Friday he was forming a group to heal a diplomatic rift with Saudi Arabia that saw the kingdom order the Lebanese ambassador to leave within 48 hours and ban all Lebanese imports. The Saudi steps came in response to critical comments made by a Lebanese minister about the Saudi-led military intervention in Yemen. Lebanon’s foreign minister Abdullah Bou Habib said in a statement the situation with Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries was not a crisis, adding that it could be solved through dialogue. The row over critical comments made by Lebanese Information Minister George Kordahi about the Saudi-led military intervention in Yemen threw the government into a new crisis amid calls for Kordahi’s resignation. If Kordahi resigns, ministers backed by the heavily armed Hezbollah group and its Amal ally could follow suit at a time when the government is already paralysed by a dispute over an inquiry into the August 2020 Beirut blast.

Prime Minister Najib Mikati asked Kordahi on Friday evening to consider Lebanon’s “national interest” but stopped short of asking for his resignation. A group of former Lebanese prime ministers called on Saturday for Kordahi to resign, saying his comments had inflicted a strong blow to relations with Gulf Arab nations. Fouad Seniora, Saad al-Hariri and Tammam Sallam said in a statement that Kordahi’s remarks “harmed Lebanon’s supreme national interest”. Kordahi has been publicly backed by Hezbollah and has declined to apologise or resign over the comments, which have dealt the worst blow to Saudi-Lebanese relations since Hariri’s 2017 detention in Riyadh.

by naharnet.com — Marada Movement chief Suleiman Franjieh on Saturday defended Information Minister Georges Kordahi after KSA, Kuwait and Bahrain expelled the Lebanese ambassadors in protest at his remarks over the Yemen war. “Minister Kordahi’s remarks reflected his opinion 20 days before he knew he’d become minister. He has proposed to me that he offer […]

by arabnews — CAIRO: The Arab League on Saturday said Lebanese officials should have dealt differently with the crisis stemming from comments by the country’s information minister which have impacted its relations with countries in the Gulf region. Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit “expressed his deep concern and regret over the rapid deterioration in Lebanese-Gulf relations…,” the league statement said. He also said that there are parties that have an interest in dismantling Lebanon’s relations with Arab countries. The statement added Aboul Gheit was confident Lebanese President Michel Aoun and Prime Minister Najib Mikati would act quickly to ease the crisis.

Aboul Gheit appealed to Gulf countries “to reflect on the measures proposed to be taken…in order to avoid further negative effects on the collapsing Lebanese economy”. The statement came a day after Saudi Arabia ordered the Lebanese ambassador to leave the Kingdom within 48 hours and banned all Lebanese imports in response to remarks by the Lebanese minister, who described the war in Yemen as Saudi “aggression.” Hours later, Bahrain ordered the Lebanese ambassador to leave the country within two days for the same reason, Bahrain’s foreign ministry said. (With Reuters)

بين رحيل وزير  او افساد  العلاقات مع المملكة العربية السعودية ودول الخليج التي تحتضن مئات الاف اللبنانيين نفضل ان يرحل الوزير باي شكل من الاشكال. لا يجوز لشخص او لحزب بمفرده ان يفسد علاقاتنا مع محيطنا الطبيعي تحت اي حجة كانت…. كفى .

The Vatican declined to comment Friday on U.S. President Joe Biden’s statement that Pope Francis encouraged him to keep receiving Holy Communion during a private audience. The Vatican, which has a long-standing policy of not commenting on specific statements attributed to the pope during private meetings, emphasized that the encounter between the two men on Oct. 29 was “a private conversation.” Matteo Bruni, the director of the Holy See press office, told reporters: “I would consider it a private conversation, and it is limited to what was said in the public statement.”

By Simon Caldwell — catholicherald.co.uk — US President Joe Biden has boasted how the Pope gave him his blessing to continue receiving Holy Communion because he was a “good Catholic” – in spite of an outcry over his record of support for abortion. Speaking to reporters after his first Vatican visit as US president, Mr Biden said he and the Holy Father did not discuss abortion once during a conversation which lasted an estimated 90 minutes. “We just talked about the fact he was happy I was a good Catholic and I should keep receiving Communion,” President Biden said. The revelation is bound to inflame sentiments among many Catholics, including some US bishops, who believe it is a public scandal for Mr Biden to continue to receive the sacrament given his support for liberal abortion policies.

At their November meeting, the US bishops will be considering the application of Canon 915 of the Code of Canon Law which forbids Holy Communion to those who “obstinately persevering in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to Holy Communion”. They intend to address the problem of Catholic politicians – like President Biden and Democrat House Speaker Nancy Pelosi – who support and advance programmes, policies and laws for abortion while claiming to be devout Catholics and presenting themselves regularly for Holy Communion. The bishops are divided among themselves about to what extent they should intervene publicly with politicians who publicly dissent from fundamental aspects of faith and morals. Mrs Pelosi has repeatedly clashed with Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco over her position, for instance. Earlier this year, however, she announced that she was “pleased” with a Vatican letter to the US bishops which she claimed had instructed the bishops not to be “divisive” on the issue of abortion.

BEIRUT, (Reuters) – Lebanese President Michel Aoun has asked Russian ambassador Alexander Rudakov for satellite images from Aug. 4, 2020, when a huge explosion rocked Beirut’s port, according to a Lebanese presidency tweet on Friday. The blast killed more than 215 people, injured thousands and destroyed swathes of the Lebanese capital. The lead investigator of […]

BEIRUT (AP) — Saudi Arabia on Friday ordered the Lebanese ambassador to the kingdom to leave the country within 48 hours and stopped all imports from Lebanon, a response to comments by a Lebanese minister who described the war in Yemen as Saudi “aggression.” Hours later, the Kingdom of Bahrain ordered the Lebanese ambassador to leave the country within two days for the same reason, Bahrain’s foreign ministry said. Lebanon’s prime minister and president discussed the Saudi decision and asked the country’s information minister to take the “appropriate decision,” an apparent call for him to resign in hopes it will ease the tension.

Saudi state media added in its report that the kingdom’s ambassador to Beirut was also asked to head back home. The report said that the move will not affect tens of thousands of Lebanese citizens and their families who live and work in the oil-rich kingdom. The Saudi decision to ban imports from Lebanon comes at a time when the small nation is in bad need for foreign currency as it passes through its worst economic and financial crisis in its modern history. Since Lebanon’s economic meltdown began in late 2019, the Lebanese pound has lost more than 90% of its value, tens of thousands lost their jobs and now three quarters of its residents live in poverty. Regional economic powerhouse Saudi Arabia, one of the world largest oil producers and exporters, has been a major market for Lebanese products over the decades. The decision came days after a video circulated on social media in which Lebanese Information Minister George Kordahi described the war in Yemen as aggression by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. He added that the war in Yemen is “absurd” and must stop because he is opposed to wars between Arabs.

by AFP – The US Treasury slapped sanctions on prominent Lebanese tycoons Jihad al-Arab and Dany Khoury and lawmaker Jamil Sayyed for allegedly benefitting from corruption and adding to the breakdown of the rule of law in the country. The three “have each personally profited from the pervasive corruption and cronyism in Lebanon, enriching themselves at the expense of the Lebanese people and state institutions,” the US Treasury said. “While the Lebanese people face daily struggles to access basic public goods, including medicine, electricity, and food, during a historic and devastating economic crisis, members of the Lebanese political class and their cronies operate with impunity to enrich themselves and hide their wealth,” the Treasury said in a statement.

The Treasury said al-Arab has used close political connections and kickback payments to win important public contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars in which he overbilled the government and, in an emergency deal to address Beirut’s 2016 garbage crisis, did not resolve the problem. The Treasury also said he won two government contracts worth $200 million after brokering a political deal in 2014 ahead of elections. Khoury, it said, used his ties to already-sanctioned politician Gibran Bassil to reap lucrative contracts “while failing to meaningfully fulfill the terms of those contracts.” “Khoury and his company have been accused of dumping toxic waste and refuse into the Mediterranean Sea, poisoning fisheries, and polluting Lebanon’s beaches, all while failing to remedy the garbage crisis,” it said.

طنية – الفاتيكان – اعتبر سفير لبنان لدى الكرسي الرسولي فريد الياس الخازن أن “لبنان في صلب اهتمامات البابا ودوائر الكرسي الرسولي”.

وقال في حديث إلى “الوكالة الوطنية للإعلام” بعد لقاءات قام بها في الفاتيكان مع كبار المسؤولين الذين يعتبرون بلد الأرز في سلم أولوياتهم: “الأحداث الأخيرة في 14 تشرين الأول تخص الواقع اللبناني بتفاصيله وظروفه في ظل أزمات اقتصادية ومالية غير مسبوقة. لكن بمعزل عن الأحداث، إن الفاتيكان غير قادر على القيام بدور حاسم لوضع حد لصدام غير مرتبط مباشرة بالأزمات الاقتصادية والاجتماعية التي يعانيها الشعب اللبناني”.

وإذ رأى أن “مسار تأليف الحكومة جاء بهدف إخراج البلاد من أوضاع خانقة أصابت الأفراد والجماعات في البيئات كافة، الطائفية والمناطقية والسياسية”، قال: “الكرسي الرسولي حريص بالدرجة الأولى على العدالة وحقوق الإنسان واحترام القانون، بمعزل عن المشهد السياسي المأزوم وتجاذبات الداخل لأي سبب كان. إنها مسائل مبدئية تلازم عمل الكرسي الرسولي في ورشة إصلاح أطلقها البابا فرنسيس في السنوات الأخيرة، وهي متواصلة بزخم لافت. الفاتيكان لا يوفر فرصة لمد يد العون الى لبنان في كافة المجالات. وكان ثمة ارتياح لتشكيل حكومة جديدة لمسته من كبار

@AzziSejean

ولِـمَ لَـم يُستَدْعَ سمير جعجع إلى الضاحيةِ الجَنوبيّةِ مباشَرةً من دونِ المرورِ في اليرزة؟ هناك المستَدعي الأصيلُ والمفوَّضُ الأصيلُ الذي يُعفي المفوَّضَ الوكيلَ من ارتكابِ جرمِ الخروجِ عن العدالة. هناك مكانُ احتجازِ الشرعيّةِ والدستورِ والعيشِ المشترَك. هناك تَرقُدُ الدولةُ اللبنانيّةُ الموحَّدة.

مذ كانت دولةُ لبنان، وأطرافٌ متعدِّدةُ الهُويّاتِ الطائفيّةِ والعقائديّةِ تَتداولُ مَهمّةَ تحميلِ المسيحيّين، وتحديدًا الموارنة، مسؤوليّةَ جميعِ الأحداثِ الـمَفصِليّةِ في هذه البلادِ المعقَّدةِ في هُويّتِها، والـمُحرَجةِ في وِحدتِها، والمتعثِّرةِ في تعايُشِها. أوّلُ “جريمةٍ” اتُّهِموا بها كانت إنشاءَهم سنةَ 1920 دولةَ “لبنانَ الكبير” مستقلَّةً عن سوريا التي لم تَكن بعدُ موجودةً. ومن يومِها تلاحَقت اتّهاماتُ المسيحيّين وصولًا إلى تحميلِ القوّاتِ اللبنانيّةِ مسؤوليّةَ أحداثِ 14 تشرين الأوّل الجاري. كفى، صار التذكيرُ بدورِ المسيحيّين ملزِمًا خصوصًا أنَّ أمامَ المحنِ يُفتَقدُ التضامنُ، ولا يبقى إلّا الشعبَ المقاوِم.

إبّانَ الانتدابِ الفرنسيِّ اتّـهَموا المسيحيّين باسْتِلطافِ الفرنسيّين، فتَفاجأوا بهم سنةَ 1943 يقودون والمسلمون معركةَ الاستقلالِ. سنةَ 1958 حَـمّلوا الرئيسَ كميل شمعون والشيخ بيار الجميّل مسؤوليّةَ “ثورة 1958” لأنّهما واجَها المدَّ الناصريَّ ومشروعَ ضمِّ لبنان إلى الوِحدةِ السوريّةِ/المصريّة. سنةَ 1975 رَمَوا المسؤوليّةَ على حزبِ الكتائب اللبنانيّةِ لأنّه تَصدّى لتوسّعِ الفِلسطينيّين عسكريًّا ومحاولةِ إقامتِهم دولةً بديلةً على أرضِ لبنان. طوالَ السبعيناتِ وَصَموا بشيرَ الجميل بنعوتٍ شتّى، ثم التَفَّتْ غالِبيّةُ اللبنانيّين حولَه ورفَعَتْهُ إلى مرتبةِ الرمزِ لحظةَ انتخابِه رئيسًا للجمهوريّةِ وبعدَ استشهادِه. سنةَ 1994 أَلْصَقوا تفجيرَ سيّدةِ النجاةِ في زوق مكايل بسمير جعجع فاعتُقلَ وسُجنَ وبُرِّئَ من هذه الجريمة.