Most of Lebanese press praise government's decision, al-Akhbar denounces a 'coup by bin Farhan government'

L'Orient-Le Jour

3 days ago

BEIRUT — The cabinet session on Thursday, which adopted the 'objectives' of the roadmap proposed by U.S. envoy Tom Barrack for restoring calm between Lebanon and Israel, has divided the Lebanese press between outlets praising the move and pro-Hezbollah newspapers heavily criticizing the government.
Barrack's text calls for 'progressively ending the armed presence of all non-state factions, including Hezbollah, throughout Lebanese territory, south and north of the Litani River.'
The four Shiite ministers present at the meeting — three representing the Hezbollah-Amal alliance — walked out of the room when discussions turned to the American document. Hezbollah had previously called on the government to reverse its Tuesday decision to disarm all militias by the end of 2025.
Nidaa al-Watan, close to the Lebanese Forces, headlined its paper with a picture portraying the Shiite ministers who withdrew from the cabinet meeting with a headline reading: "Breaking away from the national consensus."
The paper even claimed that the Shiite ministers were receiving instructions via WhatsApp during the cabinet session: "It appeared that they were confused between participating in the discussion and reading the instructions via WhatsApp."
Sovereigntist newspaper An-Nahar also praised the government's move, with the following headline: "The decisive legal resolution moves forward, and Barak's plan overcomes the obstacles."
The newspaper added that despite their objection, Hezbollah and Amal did not go this time as far as to resign and withdraw from the government, the way they did in 2006 when they resigned from Fouad Siniora's government after talks on forming a national unity government collapsed hours earlier.
"Instead, they limited themselves to objecting and withdrawing from the two sessions without causing a government crisis," An Nahar added.
Meanwhile, the moderate daily Al Joumhouriya took a more nuanced stance, claiming that the withdrawal of the Shiite ministers from the cabinet session for the second time exposed the government to a "shake-up in the national pact balance."
'Bin Farhan's government'
On the other side of the political spectrum, criticisms against the government were harsh. Pro-Hezbollah newspaper Al-Akhbar described what happened in the session as a coup for the second time in a row, as it used the same term to describe Tuesday's session: "Barrak congratulated Aoun and Salam on the coup." It went as far as calling the cabinet "Bin Farhan's government," as a reference to the Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud.
"Lebanon remains under the influence of the coup carried out by Presidents Joseph Aoun and Nawaf Salam at the August 5 ministerial session," the paper claimed, adding that this is a complete "surrender to US-Saudi dictates."
Using a similar tone, Addiyar, a paper previously known for its proximity to Syria's Assad regime, claimed that the 'national pact' principles have fallen for the first time from the first government of the current presidential term. "This is an early warning that will have consequences if the country slides further into divisions as a result of surrendering to American dictates, with Washington having succeeded in transferring the problem into the Lebanese domestic arena," it added.
Meanwhile, al-Bina, an outlet affiliated with the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP), an ally of Hezbollah, wrote: "The government was not ashamed to announce that it had adopted the paper presented by U.S. envoy Thomas Barak."
"It even said openly that, in a constitutional meeting of the Lebanese government, it had approved a paper drafted by a foreign envoy on national affairs concerning the Lebanese people, in a frank admission that talk of sovereignty in government discourse is merely rhetoric used for marketing, promotion, and misdirection."