Political, judicial and security developments in Palestine, Syria and Lebanon

On Thursday, the Palestinian Authority rejected the US State Department’s decision not to grant a visa to President Mahmoud Abbas to attend the United Nations General Assembly meetings in New York next week for the second year in a row, describing it as an “unjustified measure.”

The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed, in a statement, “the State of Palestine’s rejection of the resolution... and views it as an unjustified measure that conflicts with the efforts made to restore confidence, develop Palestinian-American relations, and create the necessary political climate to implement the two-state solution and achieve peace and stability in the region.”

For the second year in a row, the United States has refused to grant Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas an entry visa to participate in the United Nations General Assembly meetings in New York next week, according to what an informed source said on Wednesday.

In this context, a statement issued by the US State Department stated that “the United States will extend the sanctions that prohibit granting entry visas to members of the Palestine Liberation Organization and officials of the Palestinian Authority, due to their inability to achieve reforms, contrary to the commitments they made to the United States, and their continued activities that undermine the prospects for peace.”

On Thursday, the Syrian judiciary sentenced a member of the Ministry of Defense to 20 years in prison for his involvement in the violence that took place in the Sahel region last year, resulting in hundreds of deaths, while it issued a death sentence and another life sentence against two defendants loyal to the previous regime.

In the courtroom, the head of the Military Criminal Court, Zakaria Bakkar, announced the death sentence against one of the defendants for being convicted of the felonies of “assault that aims to incite civil war and sectarian fighting, and participation in an armed gang with the intention of confronting public forces, which led to the death of more than two people.”

Another accused was charged with “the felony of participating in an armed gang appointed with the intent to commit crimes of murder, robbery, and plunder,” and punished him with “life imprisonment,” while he announced that an employee in the Ministry of Defense was criminalized “with the felony of intentional murder... and punished for it with 20 years in prison, including the period of pretrial detention.”

Beirut warned of the potential geological repercussions of the massive Israeli bombings in southern Lebanon, which may extend beyond their direct damage to risks affecting public safety.

Environment Minister Tamara Al-Zein said that the bombing of “Ali Al-Taher” hill with about 1,100 tons of explosives generated, according to data from the National Center for Geophysics, ground waves similar to an earthquake measuring 4.2 on the Richter scale. She pointed out that the site is about one kilometer from the Roum Fault and about seven kilometers from the Yammouneh Fault, which raises fears of additional aftershocks given the size and location of the explosion.

In parallel, today, Thursday, Paris is hosting a meeting within the framework of the “Aqaba Path” dedicated to Lebanon, with the participation of Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, French President Emmanuel Macron, and Jordanian King Abdullah II, along with military leaders and experts.

On the other hand, the Lebanese Parliament renewed its confidence in the government of President Nawaf Salam, for the third time, with a majority of 68 deputies, including Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri’s bloc, and two deputies abstaining from voting, while the “Free Patriotic Movement” bloc withheld confidence from it, while the “Hezbollah” bloc avoided voting by withdrawing its deputies from the session before the start of voting.