BEIRUT // Saad Hariri, Lebanon's prime minister-designate, yesterday responded to the Hizbollah-led opposition's refusal to accept his proposed cabinet by resigning his post.
The move was widely considered tough brinkmanship in a 73-day stalemate over the formation of a new government.
Efforts by Mr Hariri to build a cabinet that included his political opponents have been stymied by both sides' refusal to compromise over which ministries, and which ministerial posts, would be allocated to Lebanon's diverse community of sectarian and political movements.
On Monday, Mr Hariri sent a formal proposal for a cabinet to President Michel Suleiman that was rejected by the opposition. The president had previously indicated that he would only approve a consensus cabinet.
"Given that my commitment to forming a government of national unity has run up against difficulties that everyone now knows about, I announce that I have informed the president of the republic that I have abandoned trying to form a government," Mr Hariri told journalists in Beirut yesterday, according to news services.
"I worked for 73 days to achieve this objective but each time the rounds of negotiations were hampered one way or another," added Mr Hariri, saying the team he had proposed would have been a "real opportunity" but that this was "frittered away through conditions imposed" by the minority.
Mr Suleiman accepted Mr Hariri's resignation and said he would pursue additional consultations with parliament. But as Mr Hariri's alliance still holds a considerable majority in that body, he can be reappointed to the post to begin again, if he chooses.
According to one of Mr Hariri's top supporters, the opposition's rejection of the first cabinet proposal was a mistake that they are likely to regret as it included compromises that are unlikely to be repeated in any subsequent deliberations.
"We are back to point zero and we will have to look into a new formation and the balance it is going to have," said Amar Houry, a member of Mr Hariri's Future Movement.
"It will be hard for the rivals in the next government to get what they got in the last formation. They [already] received more than they deserved."
Lebanon's complex sectarian system and long history of violent political conflict essentially mandates political co-operation among rivals, and although Mr Hariri's alliance won 71 of the 128 seats in parliament, he is widely seen as lacking the mandate to impose his political will.
"It's fairly unusual for the opposition to get to tell the winner of an election how to form a government," noted Paul Salem of the Carnegie Institute. "But the government cannot be formed without [Mr Hariri's] say-so. This is his way of reminding them of that."
But Mr Salem noted that forming a cabinet was never likely to have been easy, considering the bitterly fought June elections and years of sectarian political struggle that preceded them.
"It's not very surprising as this has been a very contested situation since before the elections," he said. "There is a struggle inside and even outside the country to define the balance of things here."
Mr Hariri's coalition is widely seen as pro-US and Saudi, whereas most of the opposition parties have close ties to Syria and Iran, making Lebanon's struggles a microcosm for the struggles between these regional rivals.
There was initial optimism that a deal could be forged after Mr Hariri was named premier on June 27 and a compromise was reached on the make-up of the national unity cabinet. With 15 seats to the majority, 10 to the opposition and five seats loyal to the neutral president, the formula met the requirements of all sides. But trouble began when Mr Hariri started selecting ministers to run specific portfolios.
While the opposition was irritated by Mr Hariri's insistence that he name the opposition and majority ministers, the most intractable conflict was over demands made by Hizbollah's top Christian ally, Michel Aoun. He vehemently insisted on a majority of the seven seats allocated to Maronite Christians, as well as demanding control of the critical interior and telecommunications ministries.
It is widely believed that both Mr Hariri and Mr Suleiman have agreed that interior should remain in control of the current minister, Ziad Baroud, who is widely seen as neutral, and Mr Hariri is said to have rejected allowing Mr Aoun's son-in-law, Jibran Bassil, to remain as telecom minister. Lebanon's government-owned mobile phone networks represent a huge source of income for the state, and a proposal to privatise them could mean billions of dollars in revenue. But a key ally of Mr Aoun rejected the notion that his party was to blame for the impasse or that regional politics had played a role.
"I reject saying the [Free Pariotic Movement] is the obstacle in the formation, and I reject to say it's a regional problem as well," MP Ghassan Moukheiber told The National. "It is beyond that. There is a regional influence but for how long are we Lebanese going to wait to make a move? We all need to work on solving our problems for the sake of the country."
And in keeping with a common talking point of the FPM, he warned that, by allowing this crisis to continue, Mr Hariri was threatening the stability of the country.
"It's the unknown we are now going though in Lebanon and I can't tell when we will have a government," he said. " I wish we had one a month ago. It's just not good at all, what happened today. It's taking us into crises."
@Email:mprothero@thenational.ae
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MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League quarter-final, second leg (first-leg score):
Manchester City (0) v Tottenham Hotspur (1), Wednesday, 11pm UAE
Match is on BeIN Sports
Sinopharm vaccine explained
The Sinopharm vaccine was created using techniques that have been around for decades.
“This is an inactivated vaccine. Simply what it means is that the virus is taken, cultured and inactivated," said Dr Nawal Al Kaabi, chair of the UAE's National Covid-19 Clinical Management Committee.
"What is left is a skeleton of the virus so it looks like a virus, but it is not live."
This is then injected into the body.
"The body will recognise it and form antibodies but because it is inactive, we will need more than one dose. The body will not develop immunity with one dose," she said.
"You have to be exposed more than one time to what we call the antigen."
The vaccine should offer protection for at least months, but no one knows how long beyond that.
Dr Al Kaabi said early vaccine volunteers in China were given shots last spring and still have antibodies today.
“Since it is inactivated, it will not last forever," she said.
The%20specs
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Day 4, Dubai Test: At a glance
Moment of the day Lahiru Gamage appeared to have been hard done by when he had his dismissal of Sami Aslam chalked off for a no-ball. Replays suggested he had not overstepped. No matter. Two balls later, the exact same combination – Gamage the bowler and Kusal Mendis at second slip – combined again to send Aslam back.
Stat of the day Haris Sohail took three wickets for one run in the only over he bowled, to end the Sri Lanka second innings in a hurry. That was as many as he had managed in total in his 10-year, 58-match first-class career to date. It was also the first time a bowler had taken three wickets having bowled just one over in an innings in Tests.
The verdict Just 119 more and with five wickets remaining seems like a perfectly attainable target for Pakistan. Factor in the fact the pitch is worn, is turning prodigiously, and that Sri Lanka’s seam bowlers have also been finding the strip to their liking, it is apparent the task is still a tough one. Still, though, thanks to Asad Shafiq and Sarfraz Ahmed, it is possible.
Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
Naga
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The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
Greatest Royal Rumble match listing
50-man Royal Rumble - names entered so far include Braun Strowman, Daniel Bryan, Kurt Angle, Big Show, Kane, Chris Jericho, The New Day and Elias
Universal Championship Brock Lesnar (champion) v Roman Reigns in a steel cage match
WWE World Heavyweight ChampionshipAJ Styles (champion) v Shinsuke Nakamura
Intercontinental Championship Seth Rollins (champion) v The Miz v Finn Balor v Samoa Joe
United States Championship Jeff Hardy (champion) v Jinder Mahal
SmackDown Tag Team Championship The Bludgeon Brothers (champions) v The Usos
Raw Tag Team Championship (currently vacant) Cesaro and Sheamus v Matt Hardy and Bray Wyatt
Casket match The Undertaker v Rusev
Singles match John Cena v Triple H
Cruiserweight Championship Cedric Alexander v Kalisto
Specs
Engine: Dual-motor all-wheel-drive electric
Range: Up to 610km
Power: 905hp
Torque: 985Nm
Price: From Dh439,000
Available: Now
The fake news generation
288,000 – the number of posts reported as hate speech that were deleted by Facebook globally each month in May and June this year
11% – the number of Americans who said they trusted the news they read on Snapchat as of June 2017, according to Statista. Over a quarter stated that they ‘rarely trusted’ the news they read on social media in general
31% - the number of young people in the US aged between 10 and 18 who said they had shared a news story online in the last six months that they later found out was wrong or inaccurate
63% - percentage of Arab nationals who said they get their news from social media every single day.
The 100 Best Novels in Translation
Boyd Tonkin, Galileo Press
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
ESSENTIALS
The flights
Emirates flies from Dubai to Phnom Penh via Yangon from Dh2,700 return including taxes. Cambodia Bayon Airlines and Cambodia Angkor Air offer return flights from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap from Dh250 return including taxes. The flight takes about 45 minutes.
The hotels
Rooms at the Raffles Le Royal in Phnom Penh cost from $225 (Dh826) per night including taxes. Rooms at the Grand Hotel d'Angkor cost from $261 (Dh960) per night including taxes.
The tours
A cyclo architecture tour of Phnom Penh costs from $20 (Dh75) per person for about three hours, with Khmer Architecture Tours. Tailor-made tours of all of Cambodia, or sites like Angkor alone, can be arranged by About Asia Travel. Emirates Holidays also offers packages.
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
RESULTS: 2018 WORLD CUP QUALIFYING - EUROPE
Albania 0 Italy 1
Finland 2 Turkey 2
Macedonia 4 Liechtenstein
Iceland 2 Kosovo 0
Israel 0 Spain 1
Moldova 0 Austria 1
Serbia 1 Georgia 0
Ukraine 0 Croatia 2
Wales 0 Ireland 1
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
The Scale for Clinical Actionability of Molecular Targets
Election pledges on migration
CDU: "Now is the time to control the German borders and enforce strict border rejections"
SPD: "Border closures and blanket rejections at internal borders contradict the spirit of a common area of freedom"
