Yesterday was the quintessential Arab sports day, as the ‘historic’ Saudi victory over world title candidate Argentina marked the start of the World Cup and attracted considerable football interest, so all eyes are on on Saudi Arabia, which will be a follow-up focal point in the next stages of the tournament, stealing attention from France The champion of the previous edition, while football fans await more exciting matches, especially in light of the surprises that occur, according to “electronic news “.
The victory of the Saudi national team was not only a notable football event, but also a major Arab event, bringing with it political dimensions that will have short- and long-term repercussions. Arab and Gulf support for Saudi Arabia at the level of leaders and peoples is no less important than the sporting success that has taken place, and the Emir of Qatar, Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, raised the Saudi flag on his shoulders in support of the national team, which was a strong political message towards the royal court in Riyadh.
For his part, Asharq Al-Awsat indicated that there is no doubt that the disappointment of the Lebanese people, who cannot watch the matches of the “Qatar 2022 World Cup” for free, as usual on the official screen of “Lebanon TV” , is not the biggest disappointment they have experienced and are experiencing since the outbreak of the financial and economic crisis in the country in 2019. However, what has happened recently in terms of the failure of Lebanese officials to reach a legal formula that would allow them to disburse $ 5 million to the company interested in allowing local broadcasting of matches revealed the fragility of the current situation and the great challenges that await the next country on many benefits in light of a presidential vacancy and the impossibility of convening the Council of Ministers, which the constitution establishes that he cannot meet while he is in a state of treatment, except in cases of extreme necessity.
Despite the mobilization of those concerned, spearheaded in recent days by interim Prime Minister Najib Mikati and Information Minister Ziad Makari, to find an adequate way out of paying this amount, they have so far been unable to find a solution mechanism that allows not to go through the Council of Ministers, not even for telecommunications companies, as Mikati had previously announced.
Constitutional expert Dr. Saeed Malik believes that “today we are faced with two problems, the first lies in the vacancy of the presidency and the second is that we are under a provisional government, i.e. a resigned government”, underlining that “if we were faced with a problem, which is the presence of a provisional government, for example, while there is a president of the republic, it was possible to resort to the exceptional approval issued by decree of the president of the country and the prime minister of the outgoing government, to provided that the issue is presented to the Council of Ministers later, but today we are faced with two main obstacles.
Malik indicated in a statement to Asharq Al-Awsat that “article 62 of the constitution provides that the Council of Ministers represents the President of the Republic in his absence, but today there is no possibility for the government to meet because this requires strict controls and an emergency circumstance, and there is no doubt that ensuring the adoption of the World Cup does not fit into this framework”, adding: “There is no doubt that there is difficulty, if not impossibility, on the constitutional order to solve this problem, and therefore any action that the government may take will be subject to criticism and will be opposed to constitutional views”. And Malik points out that this problem should be “a wake-up call, as we may be on a date with bigger problems in the future, and so if we can’t solve a problem of this size, how do you see us solving problems larger . Hence the need to elect a president, form a government, organize the work of the institutions.
In the absence of the President of the Republic, the rest of the institutions are in chains, especially since, following the dispute over ministerial quotas, the political forces have not managed to form a government before the end of the mandate of former President General Michel Aoun, given that this would solve many issues. Furthermore, a large number of deputies today refuse to attend any legislative session, since parliament has turned into an electorate with the end of Aoun’s mandate, and they stress that their duties today should be limited to electing a president.
The director of the Middle East Institute for Strategic Affairs, Dr. Sami Nader believes that “the state in Lebanon is experiencing unprecedented crises. What are the luxuries like securing funds to allow Lebanese people to watch World Cup matches for free?”
In a statement to Asharq Al-Awsat, Nader warns of the “rapid deterioration of central bank reserves, so much so that from $34 billion on the eve of the crisis, today they are less than $9 billion,” describing it as a “massive haemorrhage, as $24 billion has been spent since 2019, meaning that very soon we will reach a stage where we will not be able to secure funding for our basic food and medicine needs. He adds: “It is true that the balance of payments gap has narrowed from $21 billion to $3 billion, but there is still a gap and the situation does not bode well.”
