...an Iranian colony situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozeen flavors of Christians. It is the home of Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers...’s stability and security are vital for the region, emphasizing the importance of swiftly forming a Lebanese technocratic government that will carry out the required reforms and be responsible for the interest of Lebanese people.
Shoukry visited Lebanon and met with a number of officials including President Michel Aoun
...president of Leb, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hizbullah...
, Speaker Nabih
KnobbyBerri
...Speaker of the Lebanese parliament, head of the Amal Shiite party aligned with Hezbollah, a not very subtle sock puppet of the Medes and Persians...
, and Prime Minister Saad Hariri
...Second son of Rafik Hariri, the Leb PM who was assassinated in 2005. He has was prime minister in his own right from 2009 through early 2011. He was born in Riyadh to an Iraqi mother and graduated from Georgetown University. He managed his father's business interests in Riyadh until his father's assassination. When his father died he inherited a fortune of some $4.1 billion, which won't do him much good if Hizbullah has him bumped off, too....
. However,
Switzerland makes more than cheese...
he did not include in his meetings the caretaker prime minister, Hassan Diab, the head of the Free Patriotic Movement
Despite its name a Christian party allied with Hizbullah, neither free nor particularly patriotic...
, MP Gebran Bassil, and Hezbollah officials.
Shoukry passed on a message from Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to his Lebanese counterpart, reiterating Egypt’s solidarity with Lebanon and its support of the efforts exerted to form a new government.
Shoukhry noted that this would "open the door for regional and international support and serve the common interests of the region’s countries, but primarily those of the brotherly Lebanese people."
Aoun’s office said the president lauded Egypt’s role to help Lebanon address the various crises it is facing, particularly the governmental crisis.
He also expressed the hope that "the efforts will bear positive results through committing to the constitutional and distribution rules upon which the Lebanese system is built and including all the Lebanese parties."
Aoun stressed the accuracy of the tasks that will be entrusted to the new government, including reforms and audits to hold accountable those who stole the money of both the Lebanese and the state.
During a presser with Hariri, Shoukry asserted that his country will continue to exert all possible efforts alongside the Lebanese political parties to overcome the crisis facing the formation of the new government.
"The political framework of the upcoming government is ruled by the constitution, the Taif Agreement and the full commitment to those documents, considered the main pillars of stability."
Shoukry denounced the ongoing political deadlock preventing the formation of a government of specialists capable of meeting the needs of the brotherly Lebanese people and achieving stability, not only for Lebanon but for the region and Egypt.