RIYADH: Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani held a meeting with Lebanese Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri in the capital Doha, Qatar News Agency (QNA) reported on Thursday.
During the meeting, they discussed the latest developments in Lebanon and efforts related to forming a government.
Hariri, who is on an official visit to the country, said in a tweet following the talks that he briefed the Qatari emir on the most prominent developments in Lebanon.
Sheikh Tamim affirmed Doha’s support for Beirut and called on “all Lebanese parties to prioritize national interest to accelerate the formation of a new government to face the crises and challenges facing Lebanon.”
Lebanese President Michel Aoun assigned Hariri with forming a cabinet on Oct. 22 last year.

LONDON: Top European and US officials are urging Iran to keep allowing United Nations nuclear inspections to salvage a 2015 deal between Tehran and world powers and to cool global tensions over Iran’s atomic ambitions.
The foreign ministers of France, Germany and Britain met Thursday in Paris to discuss security in Iran and the region, and US Secretary of State Tony Blinken joined them by videoconference.
The minsters expressed their “shared fundamental security interest in upholding the nuclear non-proliferation regime,” Britain said.
“Regarding Iran, the E3 and the United States expressed their shared fundamental security interest in upholding the nuclear non-proliferation regime and ensuring that Iran can never develop a nuclear weapon,” the foreign ministry said.
The ministers also “expressed their shared concerns over Iran’s recent actions to produce both uranium enriched up to 20% and uranium metal,” it said in a statement.
Iran has said it will stop part of International Atomic Energy Agency inspections of its nuclear facilities next week if the West doesn’t implement its own commitments under the 2015 deal. The accord has been unraveling since Donald Trump pulled the US out of the agreement in 2018.
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas warned that Iran was “playing with fire” and could jeopardize efforts to get the United States back as a signatory now that Trump no longer is in office.
“We are the ones who have kept this agreement alive in recent years, and now it’s about supporting the United States in taking the road back into the agreement,” Maas told reporters in Paris.
“The measures that have been taken in Tehran and may be taken in the coming days are anything but helpful. They endanger the Americans’ path back into this agreement. The more pressure that is exerted, the more politically difficult it will be to find a solution,” he said.
The accord aims to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear bomb, which it says it doesn’t want to do. Tehran has been using its violations of the deal to put pressure on the remaining signatories — France, Germany, Britain, Russia and China — to provide more incentives to Iran to offset crippling. sanctions the Trump administration re-imposed after pulling out of the 2015 deal.
The United States is working closely with allies to engage and coordinate about the future of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said.
“Iran is a long way from compliance,” Psaki told an online briefing, saying the US government was focused on preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear capability.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the president of the European Council spoke with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani this week to try to end the diplomatic standoff. 
Michel said that he told Rouhani that the European Union backed full implementation of the nuclear deal.
“Preserving a space for diplomacy, underpinned by positive steps, is crucial at this stage,” Michel tweeted.
The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN nuclear watchdog, is scheduled to travel to Iran this weekend to find a solution that allows the agency to continue inspections.
In Iran, Rouhani expressed hope Thursday that the Biden administration will rejoin the accord and lift the US sanctions that the United States re-imposed under Trump, according to state television.
Ahead of Thursday’s talks in Paris, US State Department spokesperson Ned Price urged Iran to “provide full and timely cooperation with the IAEA.”
He insisted that “the path for diplomacy remains open….We hope to be able to pursue it together with our allies and partners.”
(With AP and Reuters)

BEIRUT: Six months on from the deadly explosion in Beirut Port, the investigation into its causes has gone back to square one. Lebanon’s court of cassation on Thursday removed Judge Fadi Sawan from the case, after a request from two of the former ministers he had charged — Ali Hassan Khalil and Ghazi Zeaiter.

Youssef Fenianos, former minister of public works, was due to be questioned on Thursday but said he would not turn up because he did not receive a formal summons, he claimed.

The court’s unanimous decision was expected. Two months ago, Khalil and Zeaiter, who had also refused to be questioned over the Beirut blast, submitted a request to remove Sawan from the case because of “legitimate suspicions” over his neutrality.

A judicial source told Arab News: “The court’s decision was based, in addition to ‘legitimate suspicion,’ on another argument: Sawan’s house in Ashrafieh was damaged by the blast, (for which) the judge received 13 million Lebanese pounds from the High Relief Committee in compensation.”

Sawan has faced political pressure since the investigation into the blast — which killed 202 people, injured more than 6,000, wrecked thousands of homes and destroyed Lebanon’s main grain silo — began, having issued several arrest warrants against senior port officials and security officers.

He was also criticized for summoning the prime minister of the caretaker government, along with current and former ministers, to question them about 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate, which had been stored unsafely for more than six years at the port.

The media, too, has been campaigning against Sawan. On Thursday, he was accused by Lebanon’s pro-Hezbollah newspaper Al-Akhbar of “heresy.”

Marie-Claude Najm, Lebanese justice minister, is expected to nominate another judge to take over from Sawan, but any appointment must be approved by the Supreme Judicial Council.

The judicial source also told Arab News: “The new judge will study the case again and might annul the decisions of Sawan regarding the measures taken against those who have been detained.”

The source described any new judge agreeing to handle the investigation as “suicidal.”

Media and activists criticizing the state’s performance are also the subjects of political pressure. On Thursday, activist Rami Fanj was released after being arrested on Wednesday for feeding the poor in the city. A campaign was launched on social media and in Tripoli to voice support and solidarity with Fanj.

Fanj said he was interrogated about “the source of funding to distribute food.” He added: “Even if they consider that feeding the poor is a crime, we will not stop.”

Meanwhile, the parliamentary Media and Communications Committee has summoned the chairmen of local TV stations to “address some media incidents that have occurred lately,” according to the head of the committee and Hezbollah lawmaker Hussein Al-Haj Hassan.

Al-Haj Hassan said: “Some mistakes must be addressed, such as conspiring to incite sedition, threatening national stability and security, inciting sectarian and confessional strife, and falsely accusing someone of murder, without relying on investigations.” Hassan was likely referring to widespread accusations that Hezbollah was responsible for the killing of the prominent anti-Hezbollah critic and activist Luqman Slim two weeks ago. Several pro-Hezbollah figures have launched their own protests over those accusations.

Joseph Kossaifi, president of Lebanon’s Syndicate of Press Editors, revealed to Arab News that a meeting will be held on Friday in the presence of political media offices’ heads, asking politicians to “carefully and responsibly choose their words while talking on TV channels in order not to hold media outlets responsible for any insults and accusations.”

“When MP Al-Haj Hassan summoned the chairmen of TV stations to parliament, he did not consult us. Nobody can cover the mouths of journalists or anyone else. The country is in complete chaos and politicians must choose their words carefully,” added Kossaifi.

Lebanon’s Kataeb and Progressive Socialist Party criticized what it described as an “attempt to make Lebanon a police state and oppress others’ opinions and media freedom.”

AMMAN: Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, who signed the decree for this year’s elections, has yet to announce whether he intends to run for president.

In the past 10 years, he said on at least three occasions that if and when elections take place he will not stand. But Fatah strongman Jibril Rajoub has repeatedly stated that 85-year-old Abbas is the party’s only candidate for president.

Polls conducted as recently as December suggest that Abbas would lose in a head-to-head contest against Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. Under the current power-sharing understanding between Fatah and Hamas, however, the Islamist movement has agreed not to challenge the Fatah nominee.

While the largely youthful Palestinian population under occupation has not known any leader other than Abu Mazen (Abbas’s nom de guerre), he faces a mix of apathy and rejection.

Senior advisers to the president told Arab News that it is “too early” to talk about the presidential race, scheduled for July 31, because all attention now is on making sure the legislative elections take place on May 22 and a new government is formed to represent all of the Palestinian areas occupied in 1967.

Najeeb Qadoumi, a member of the Palestinian National Council, told Arab News that the Palestinian leader’s achievements cannot be dismissed. Abbas persuaded 138 nations in the UN general assembly to recognize Palestine as a nonmember observer state, he said, and also stood up to “the most powerful man in the world,” US President Donald Trump, in defeating the so-called “deal of the century.”

Qadoumi highlighted Abbas’s boycott of the Trump administration after it moved the US Embassy to Jerusalem and announced its vision for peace that included the annexation of a third of the West Bank. US President Joe Biden and his team have announced that they plan to reverse many of Trump’s decisions that affected Palestinians, including its legalization of Israeli settlement activities. The new US administration also unambiguously stated its support for a two-state solution, and has resumed dialogue with the Palestinians.

While many in Fatah’s Central Committee favor Abbas as a consensus leader, it is still unclear whether he will decide to run for the highest office. However his followers have in recent weeks noticed a sharpening of nationalistic rhetoric from him, especially in publicly disclosed statements encouraging Palestinians in the Jordan Valley to resist Israeli policies and attempts at settlement expansion.

“These are the words of a man who is planning to run,” a senior Palestinian leader told Arab News.

Whether his previous statements that he would not run were genuine or a bluff, if he does decide to stand he will have a significant problem to deal with: The publicly announced intention of imprisoned Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti to run for president from behind the bars of an Israeli cell, where he has been held for almost 20 years.

The most recent poll suggested that if Barghouti runs, he could expect to receive 62 percent of the Palestinian vote. His ally Hatem Abdel Qader, a Fatah leader in Jerusalem, said Barghouti has no plans to run for the legislative council and will only stand for president.

Fatah Central Committee member Hussein Sheikh visited Barghouti in jail on Feb. 11 and reportedly offered him top spot on the Fatah list of candidates, along with the chance to name 10 others on the party’s official list, but the offer was rejected.

A possible compromise solution that has been suggested is the creation of the office of vice president and have the Fatah ticket include candidates for both positions. However this would require a change in the law that could only be implemented after the elections for the legislative council take place.

If it happens, Barghouti could be included on the ticket as the candidate either for president or vice president, which could help increase his chances for release, especially considering Abbas’s age.

BEIRUT: Snow blanketed parts of Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Israel on Wednesday, covering areas it has not reached in years, disrupting traffic and postponing vaccination campaigns against COVID-19 and even exams at some universities.
It snowed for the first time in years in Marjayoun in southern Lebanon, and in Bayda in northeast Libya.
Gale force winds knocked out electricity in vast parts of Lebanon, forcing many Lebanese, already used to power cuts, to rely on generators for longer hours. Rescuers pulled four motorists out of their snow-covered cars, the National News Agency said.
The first snow this winter in the Syrian capital, Damascus, did not prevent the Premier League soccer tournament from going ahead, as Army Sports Club and Al-Karamah faced off despite the snow that covered the pitch, the Syrian Al-Watan daily reported .
In the mountains of Syria’s Sweida province, snow was as high as 15 cm (6 inches), according to the official state news agency SANA. Roads in some provinces were blocked. In the central province of Hama, bulldozers shoveled snow to open roads while vehicles skidded on ice, causing traffic disruption.
The University of Damascus called off mid-term exams scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday in all its branches around Syria because of the extreme weather conditions. The country’s ports remained open. Later, local authorities in the provinces of Sweida, Quneitra, Daraa and Tartous suspend school on Thursday due to the storm and heavy snowfall.
In the opposition-held northwestern Syria, civil defense teams have been building dirt mounds since Tuesday around camps for the displaced to prevent rain from flooding the crowded areas. Nearly 3 million displaced people live in northwestern Syria, mostly in tents and temporary shelters. Heavy rainfall last month damaged over 190 displacement sites, destroying and damaging over 10,000 tents.
In neighboring Lebanon, Storm Joyce hit late Tuesday with gale force winds registering between 85 km/h (52 miles/h) and 100 km/h (62 miles/h). The storm is expected to get stronger Thursday.
Breaking a warm spell, the storm brought heavy rainfall, a sharp drop in temperatures and the heaviest snow fall in Lebanon this year. Snow is expected to cover areas of altitudes as low as 400 meters, according to the meteorological department. Nearly a dozen roads in eastern and northern Lebanon were closed to traffic because of the snow. A beachside club and restaurant were submerged in water as waves nearly 4 meters (13 feet) high slammed onto the shore.
The Israeli Meteorological Service forecast heavy thunderstorms and cold temperatures across much of the country, with snowfall at higher altitudes expected later on Wednesday, including in Jerusalem. On Wednesday night, Israeli police closed the main road between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem due to snow.
Heavy snowfall covered the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights near the border with Syria.
In Jordan, the COVID-19 vaccination drive was suspended due to severe weather conditions. Schools and universities also put off classes. Jordan’s Prime Minister Bishr Al-Khasawneh announced that Thursday will be an official holiday for both the public and private sector due to the snow storm.
Osama Al-Tarifi, director of the operating room of the Arabia Weather site, said snow has reached 20 cm (8 inches) in the mountains of Ajloun in northern Jordan, where snowfall has been non-stop since Tuesday night. Heavy snow is expected in the capital, Amman, on Wednesday.
Wind exceeded 100 km/hour (62 miles/h) in some areas in Jordan.
In Libya, snow blanketed the country’s northeast mountains as snowfall continued since Tuesday, covering forests and roads in some areas in the North African country.
Residents of the Jabal Al-Akhdar area in the far northeast part of Libya took their children out for fun, some making snowmen and others starting snowball fights.
“I was surprised, actually, by the number of families who came here to take pictures to remember the snow,” said Ali Al-Shairi, an amateur photographer from the eastern city of Bayda, which is known for recurrent snow in Libya but has not seen any for a couple of years.
In neighboring Egypt, heavy rain and windy weather prevailed on Wednesday and was expected to last into Thursday, the country’s meteorological agency said. Authorities in South Sinai province, which includes touristic hubs, canceled touristic activities, including safaris and cruises to weather the storm.