The newspaper "Nidaa al-Watan" wrote: From the Saudi "ray of hope" appearing on the Lebanese horizon, Prime Minister Najib Mikati began yesterday's Cabinet meeting by considering that the Gulf's welcome of the contents of his recent statement indicates that "the cloud which has overshadowed relations with Lebanon is lifting"... Yet, the Cabinet soon delved back into the mire of interconnected internal crises, including food, financial, economic, judicial, banking, and living crises, with the addition of a "new flare-up" in the country as warned by the Interior Minister, concerning "dangerous materials at the Zouk plant that could be more dangerous than those at the port." It was decided to task the army with inspecting these materials and providing a report.
Regarding current issues, discussions over several files within the Cabinet became heated; however, it was mostly described as "fruitless" by ministerial sources. They expressed regret that all the proposals under discussion were, in reality, merely "patching upon patching" and far from the fundamental solutions needed to tackle the accumulated and pressing issues at hand, resulting in further "confusion and circular reasoning with no capacity to resolve matters in either direction."
In the issue concerning the judicial-banking problem, the Cabinet referred the matter to a committee headed by Justice Minister Henry Khoury, including judges and bankers, to explore the necessary solutions. The matter of utilizing state assets to fill the cash gaps in the state's budget was also raised. As for the invitation of the Governor of the Central Bank, Riad Salameh, to attend the Cabinet meeting, sources clarified that it came amidst a "casual discussion about the need to listen to his opinion and gain insight from him regarding the foreign currency situation in the central bank, especially after the possibility of requesting him to lend the state in dollars was raised, but no final date for his invitation has been set." They also pointed out that the Energy Minister's request for a cash advance in dollars came under the threat of completely halting the operations of power plants if the advance was not secured, which sparked extensive discussion, particularly in light of several ministers' conditions to know the specific use of the requested amount before approving it. Consequently, the matter was referred to the Minister of Finance "to review its details and propose an appropriate formula for funding the requested advance along with the necessary oversight mechanism for its disbursement."
In summary of the session, sources confirmed that "everything remained stuck," warning against the dangers of wasting more time without implementing the required remedies, especially regarding the issue of "food security," as the country would face "a major and serious crisis if alternatives to vital materials that have stopped being imported from Ukraine are not urgently found, which will be addressed (today) at the table of the committee assigned to this matter." They concurrently indicated the "necessity to decide on the halting of vital material exports from Lebanon at this stage, and to resolve the issue of 'conflict of authorities' that arose during the session at the Grand Serail (yesterday) among the ministries concerned with this file."
Amid the official confusion in Lebanon, the contents of the sermon delivered by Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, head of the Eastern Churches at the Vatican, drew attention yesterday when addressed to President Michel Aoun before his return to Beirut, during his presiding over a mass for Lebanon at the Mar Sharlb monastery affiliated with the Lebanese Maronite Order in Rome. Monitoring circles considered that Sandri's "sermon" dismantled all the "sermons and political messages" Aoun attempted to convey during his visit to Rome and in the Vatican, especially regarding his defense of Hezbollah's weapons and his promotion of the necessity for Christians to coexist with the presence of these weapons outside the framework of the state under the slogan of "not affecting" the internal situation in Lebanon.
Conversely, Sandri was keen in his sermon to emphasize the importance of preserving the "identity" of the Lebanese entity, stressing that Lebanon must remain "faithful to its identity among various countries in the Middle East and must emerge from its dangerous economic and social crisis that has been afflicting it for a while and whose severity has been exacerbated by the repercussions of the Beirut Port explosion on August 4." In this regard, he sent a significantly expressed message: "Denying faith leads to a loss of identity, and seeking security through alliances with tyrants destroys the structure and enslaves the people," indirectly urging Lebanese officials to "conduct a deep self-examination." He warned that "Lebanon, the lighthouse positioned on a mountain to shine in the darkness, can become a sign of turmoil and blindness for all brothers and sisters in humanity."
In a message intersecting with Sandri's sermon, Maronite Patriarch Beshara Al-Rahi’s statements from Egypt during an interview with MTV highlighted his disappointment that "Lebanon has lost its health and its fundamental identity, which is neutrality," rejecting the notion of Lebanon remaining a stage for "wars, conflicts, and isolation from the world," emphasizing the necessity for it to be a "master of itself" rather than a mere collection of "mini-states and republics."
