Fun fact about #Lebanon's newly appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs:
A battle over the Lebanese embassy in DC took place in 1989, when Abdallah BouHabib was the ambassador. The Taif Agreement had gone into effect and Elias Hraoui was elected President in December of that year.
Hraoui, immediately fired Michel Aoun from all his self-proclaimed posts, removed #Lebanon’s veteran ambassador to Washington, Bouhabib himself, and handed control of the embassy to the No. 2 diplomat at the time, Sleiman Rassi.
Yet Aoun - who was holding out with 20,000 troops at the presidential palace in Baabda refusing to recognize the Hraoui gov't - sent Bouhabib a telegram ordering him to stay put.
BouHabib, a staunch Aoun supporter, continued to occupy the ambassador’s office and residence.
BouHabib argued that under foreign service regulations he was entitled to a two-month transition period to put his affairs in order and transfer the embassy to his successor.
However, #Lebanon’s PM at the time, Salim al-Hoss, decided to fire him immediately. Following Aoun's agenda, BouHabib had made derogatory statements about al-Hoss in the runup to the event.
Contrary to his wishes, BouHabib eventually conceded after Aoun was forced out of the Baabda palace following its bombardment by the Syrian regime's warplanes. Aoun eventually fled to France & remained in exile for 15 yrs before cutting a deal with the same regime & coming back.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
Many fallacies are often perpetuated in media [esp. Arab] about alliances & geopolitics in the MENA region, mainly for propaganda purposes. For instance, since penning the normalization deal with #Israel, state-sponsored media in the #UAE insists that #Iran & #Turkey inch closer.
However, here’s a microcosm of how intricate the relation of the two is:
🇹🇷 & 🇮🇷 are at the opposing ends in: 🇮🇶, 🇸🇾 & now Azerbaijan/#Armenia; they overlap in #Libya & on Palestine. One could argue that if Ankara was to invest more in #Lebanon, it’ll be at odds with Tehran.
#Iran has remained largely silent on the dispute between Turkey & others in the East Med.
With Syria in mind, developments in Armenia [which I predict will be contained] could lead to another front of Russian-Iranian alignment in face of Turkey.
Mustafa Adib is not the hero some people are portraying him to be. But Adib, banking on French support & the suffocating situation on the ground, had a stronger hand in negotiating his government formation process - unlike his predecessors. The PM-designate though that:
•parties will cave-in following the Aug 4 explosion & Int’l pressure, resulting in them facilitating the formation of a gov’t that can enact certain reforms and tap into some $$s.
However, reality hit hard. #Lebanon, as usual, is just another piece of the regional chessboard.
Hence why, regional patrons of the sectarian ruling mafia decided to “freeze” the situation until November 3rd. When the Iranians [Hezbollah] and the Saudis [economic support: CEDRE/IMF] figure out who will occupy the Oval Office next, concessions & compromise become possible.
Today, the Lebanese Forces, a far right Christian militia-turned party, decided to commemorate in a typical militia-styled march the assassination by the fascist Syrian Social Nationalist Party of its founder Bachir Gemayel, ex-president-elect, in 1982.
Meanwhile, the SSNP had already commemorated its Wimpy Operation of 1982 in a similar fashion donning the same black uniform.
The followers of both parties often butt heads on Sept 14 of every year, in what i’d like to dub as the “derby of Lebanon.”
The tradition requires SSNP supporters to accuse, every year, the late President Gemayel of being a Zionist traitor due to his party’s alliance with the Israeli army during the civil war. They also celebrate Habib Chartouny, the alleged operative that conducted the assassination.
Another day another major fire reported at the Port of #Beirut, the site of August 4’s massive explosion that shook the city and killed over 150 people.
Monitoring WhatsApp groups instantly shows you growing panic among residents around that area.the
Given this is the second fire since the explosion, this begs the question: what is being burned there? Why is it being burnt and not disposed in a more eco-friendly way? Or are the people in charge aiming to completely destroy certain things in an attempt to hide evidence?
The video here provides a closer look on the large fire at the Port or #Beirut. In theory, the thicker the smoke, the more spectacular the flashover or fire spread. However, the danger this smoke poses on people’s lives is by in large due to the amounts of CO2 it’s releasing.