French-American efforts related to Lebanon are focused on finding a “formula” that guarantees avoiding a security vacuum in the south after the withdrawal of UNIFIL forces, in addition to finding a satisfactory “verification mechanism” to ensure Hezbollah’s withdrawal and the deployment of the army in the experimental areas from which Israel withdraws.
While US Secretary of State Marco Rubio renewed a proposal that Lebanon had rejected, which was to assign the task to a civilian group, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said, after the G7 ministerial meeting in Paris, that there is “a necessity to move forward and quickly towards a new security structure.” Barrow added about the guarantees that France can provide: “They must be based on existing Security Council resolutions, especially Resolution 1701, and they must contribute to the success of the tripartite agreement (the framework agreement).”
On the other hand, local sources said that Lebanon “has not yet received the results of the US-French talks, but the picture will become clearer early next week with the visit of the US Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Mike Waltz, to Beirut.”
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) announced that one of its patrols came under fire near the village of Wadi Gilo in southern Lebanon on Tuesday evening, and about 12 shots were fired towards the peacekeeping forces.
It was not immediately clear who fired at the forces.
UNIFIL said, in a statement, that the patrol detected a flash resulting from gunfire from the muzzle of a weapon, and responded by opening fire, prompting the shooter to stop. No peacekeepers were harmed during the incident.
UNIFIL reiterated that international law obliges all parties to ensure the safety and security of United Nations personnel and property at all times.
The statement said: “The deliberate attacks on peacekeepers constitute a violation of Security Council Resolution 1701 and international humanitarian law.”
The force called on the Lebanese government to quickly open an investigation to identify those responsible for the incident and hold them accountable.
Lebanese security forces found former Iraqi MP Ahmed Al-Alwani murdered in an apartment in Beirut, four days after his disappearance.
On Tuesday, the Iraqi News Agency (INA) confirmed that the body of former MP Ahmed Al-Alwani was found in Beirut, while Lebanese media said that Al-Alwani’s dead body was found in a residential apartment in the Tariq Al-Jadidah area in Beirut, noting that “he was strangled to death in the apartment after being lured there.”
A judicial source revealed to Asharq Al-Awsat that the security services “found an unidentified body on Monday evening, and it turned out on Tuesday afternoon that it belonged to MP Ahmed Al-Alwani, as its identity was verified after the family of the dead man filed a missing report.” He confirmed that according to surveillance cameras, Alwani “came of his own free will with two people to the building where his body was found, and went up to the apartment before losing track of him there,” noting that “he was killed by suffocation using the house’s curtain rope, which was extracted and used to kill him.”
The judicial source confirmed that the security services “uncovered the identity of three of those involved in the crime, two Syrians and a Lebanese who is currently detained pending investigation,” pointing out that “these people were the ones who brought Alwani from the airport to the hotel when he arrived in Beirut,” and it is likely that the two Syrians “left Lebanese territory after the crime was committed.” He stated that the forensic medical report indicated that the death “occurred at least three days ago.”
The Iraqi embassy in Beirut had received information from the family of former Iraqi MP Ahmed Al-Alwani that there had been no news of him for four days, his phones were switched off, and he had lost track of him even by those accompanying him.
The Public Prosecutor at the Court of Cassation, Judge Ahmed Rami Al-Haj, is following up on the initial investigations into the circumstances of Al-Alwani’s killing, taking control of the file, and directly supervising the initial investigations conducted by the Information Division of the Internal Security Forces, with the aim of uncovering the circumstances of the crime and determining the circumstances of its occurrence.
In addition, a Lebanese security source confirmed that the security services received a report about the loss of contact with Al-Alwani after he entered Lebanon. The Lebanese security services conducted searches and investigations into Al-Alwani, while “the Iraqi embassy was following up the file and communicating continuously with the highest authorities in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad,” according to what Iraqi media reported.
For its part, the Iraqi embassy in Lebanon announced that the ambassador is personally following up on the issue of the kidnapping of former Iraqi MP Ahmed Al-Alwani in Beirut, and is in direct contact with the Lebanese security services on the one hand, and with the Al-Alwani family on the other hand to find out the circumstances.
The Central News Agency quoted a Lebanese security source as saying that two Syrians and a Lebanese rented the apartment in which the former Iraqi MP was found murdered.
