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Aoun denies dismissal plans
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun denied plans to dismiss Lebanese Armed Forces Commander Rodolphe Haykal after a senior Hezbollah official alleged that changes to the military leadership were imminent.
In a statement, the presidency said reports claiming the army commander or other senior security officials would be removed were false, stressing that the country’s security institutions play a fundamental role in maintaining security and upholding state sovereignty.
Nabih Berri, speaker of Lebanon’s parliament and leader of Hezbollah ally the Amal Movement, told Al-Akhbar that such an idea should not even be raised as a joke and warned against “playing games” with the army.
The dispute unfolded as the US-brokered Lebanon-Israel framework agreement requires Hezbollah to disarm before Israeli forces withdraw, and it also prevents Lebanon from pursuing international legal complaints against Israel over a conflict that, since March this year, has resulted in the deaths of more than 4,000 Lebanese citizens and displaced more than one million people.
A Lebanese Armed Forces statement said Haykal met the commander of the US Central Command (CENTCOM) on Monday to discuss the Beirut-Tel Aviv framework agreement, with Haykal thanking the United States for its support and saying continued military cooperation was vital to preserving Lebanon’s security and stability.
Berri rejects the framework
Nabih Berri rejected the framework agreement signed with Israel, saying in an Amal movement statement that it “will neither be implemented nor validated,” because it does not protect Lebanon’s rights.
In the same statement, Berri asserted that “this agreement will not pass and will not be implemented in its current form,” describing it as an “imposition agreement, and not an agreement that preserves Lebanon's rights.”
The Daily Beirut reported that Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam had a telephone exchange with Berri during which they discussed the situation and developments related to the signing of the framework agreement with Israel.
The Lebanese government statement published on the X platform said the two officials expressed their rejection of any discord among Lebanese and called on them to face it and to prevent political differences from becoming sources of division and national fracture.
An Israeli report cited by Daily Beirut said Hezbollah and the Amal movement are considering resigning from the Lebanese government to bring it down as a protest against the agreement, while several Lebanese cities saw demonstrations by opponents of the Shiite duo against the text.
Convicts transfer to Syria
Beyond the Lebanon-Israel dispute, Lebanese authorities handed over 128 Syrian convicts to Damascus in a second batch, according to a security source, in accordance with a bilateral agreement signed in February.
“Published on By Lebanese President Joseph Aoun has denied claims that Beirut is planning to dismiss Lebanese Armed Forces Commander Rodolphe Haykal after a senior Hezbollah official alleged that changes to the military leadership were imminent”
The transfer on Wednesday came after more than three months after the transfer of the first batch, which included 132 Syrian convicts on March 17, bringing to 260 the number handed over to Damascus so far.
The same source said the crowded Lebanese prisons hold about 2,000 Syrians detained on various charges including terrorism and affiliation with extremist groups and armed factions, and they were referred to the military court.
The issue of Syrian detainees in Lebanon remains one of the unresolved files between the two countries, alongside border issues, smuggling, the missing and the forcibly disappeared.
The convicts transfer was described as part of efforts to close a thorny issue between Lebanon and Syria, with the Roumieh Prison figure cited as about 356 Syrian convicts in Lebanon at the time of the transfers.
