Lebanon’s prime minister-designate has said he is making slow progress towards forming a government, dashing hopes for a breakthrough in negotiations over the Cabinet’s line-up.
A source close to President Michel Aoun said discussions on the distribution of portfolios among confessional groups had advanced, but that an agreement on the allocation of key ministries had not yet been reached.
“We would be committing a great sin if we don’t quickly form a government ... We made progress in consultations today, and though progress has been slow, we are persevering and insisting on forming a government,” Najib Mikati said on Thursday after meeting Mr Aoun.
The president will meet the prime minister-designate again on Friday to pursue discussions, the source said.
Control over the interior and justice ministries has been at the heart of the latest round of discussions between the president and prime minister-designate.
Mr Mikati, a billionaire businessman, is the third prime minister to be designated in less a year to form a cabinet.
He succeeds Future Movement leader Saad Hariri, who stepped down after nine months of bickering with Mr Aoun over the Cabinet’s make-up.
Mr Hariri, the country’s most senior Sunni official, backed Mr Mikati for the post on the condition he upholds the same principles in negotiations with the president.
The international community, led by the US and France, has urged the quick formation of a cabinet capable of enacting reforms, in exchange for financial support.
Mr Hariri had accused Mr Aoun of blocking the appointment of non-partisan experts needed to unlock foreign aid.
The president, on the other hand, has argued Mr Hariri was seeking to dictate the cabinet line-up in breach of the constitution.
A donor conference organised by the UN and France on Wednesday secured pledges of $370 million in humanitarian aid for Lebanon’s most vulnerable communities. The conference took place on the anniversary of the Beirut port blast.
French President Emanuel Macron, who has visited Lebanon twice since the blast, said aid would be channelled directly to non-governmental organisations.
“There won’t be any blank cheques to the benefit of Lebanon’s political system,” he said, and blamed Lebanese officials for the worst economic and financial crisis to engulf the country in decades.
Mr Macron threatened Lebanese politicians with sanctions and said the priority was the formation of a government that enacts reforms.
Lebanon has been without a functioning Cabinet since the blast forced Hassan Diab’s government to resign last August.
Indoor cricket World Cup:
Insportz, Dubai, September 16-23
UAE fixtures:
Men
Saturday, September 16 – 1.45pm, v New Zealand
Sunday, September 17 – 10.30am, v Australia; 3.45pm, v South Africa
Monday, September 18 – 2pm, v England; 7.15pm, v India
Tuesday, September 19 – 12.15pm, v Singapore; 5.30pm, v Sri Lanka
Thursday, September 21 – 2pm v Malaysia
Friday, September 22 – 3.30pm, semi-final
Saturday, September 23 – 3pm, grand final
Women
Saturday, September 16 – 5.15pm, v Australia
Sunday, September 17 – 2pm, v South Africa; 7.15pm, v New Zealand
Monday, September 18 – 5.30pm, v England
Tuesday, September 19 – 10.30am, v New Zealand; 3.45pm, v South Africa
Thursday, September 21 – 12.15pm, v Australia
Friday, September 22 – 1.30pm, semi-final
Saturday, September 23 – 1pm, grand final
Living in...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
THE CLOWN OF GAZA
Director: Abdulrahman Sabbah
Starring: Alaa Meqdad
Rating: 4/5
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
UK-EU trade at a glance
EU fishing vessels guaranteed access to UK waters for 12 years
Co-operation on security initiatives and procurement of defence products
Youth experience scheme to work, study or volunteer in UK and EU countries
Smoother border management with use of e-gates
Cutting red tape on import and export of food
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
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