Vanishing Lebanese-American Marine goes to trial

RALEIGH, United Staes: A U.S. Marine who vanished from a base in Iraq and later wound up in Lebanon is set to face trial more than a decade after the puzzling case began.

Cpl. Wassef Hassoun's court martial on desertion and other charges starts Monday at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. Defense attorneys maintain that he was kidnapped in 2004 by insurgents and that later, after briefly returning to the U.S., he became tangled up in Lebanese courts for years.

Prosecutors say Hassoun fled his post in Iraq because he was unhappy with his deployment and didn't like how U.S. troops treated Iraqis. However, a September report from the military equivalent of a grand jury hearing acknowledges that prosecutors could have a hard time proving their largely circumstantial case because of the difficulty in tracking down witnesses.

The case began when Hassoun went missing from a base in Fallujah in June 2004. Days later, he appeared blindfolded and with a sword poised above his head in a photo purportedly taken by insurgents. An extremist group claimed to be holding him captive.

Not long after that, Hassoun turned up unharmed at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, saying he'd been kidnapped. But officials were suspicious, and he was brought back to Camp Lejeune while the military considered charging him with desertion and counts related to a pistol and Humvee he's accused of taking.

Hassoun's case occupies some of the same murky territory as that of Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, a soldier who left his post in Afghanistan and was held by the Taliban for five years. The Army is considering what, if any charges or punishment Bergdahl should face.

A lawyer for Hassoun, Haytham Faraj, questions why his client's case is heading to trial when many unauthorized absences are handled administratively.

"To me it doesn't seem very fair," Faraj said in a recent telephone interview.

An expert on military law agreed that most servicemen accused of leaving their post receive administrative punishment. But Philip Cave, a retired Navy lawyer now in private practice, said Hassoun's multiple absences - including one shortly before he faced a court hearing - may explain why his case is being handled with a trial.

Hassoun, a native of Lebanon and naturalized American citizen, enlisted in the Marine Corps in January 2002 and served as an Arabic translator.

Prosecutors cited witnesses who said Hassoun didn't like how the U.S. was interrogating Iraqis and that he said he wouldn't shoot back at Iraqis.

Intelligence documents declassified in recent months shed further light on the investigation of Hassoun's kidnapping claim. A Naval Criminal Investigative Service report from August 2004 states that Hassoun's family in Lebanon seemed genuinely distraught after news of his kidnapping surfaced, contacting the U.S. Embassy in tears.

Another report said the family told investigators that a representative of the Hassoun clan, made up of Sunni Muslims, was able to negotiate with insurgents for Hassoun's release. News that he later returned to the U.S. Embassy in Beirut "sparked a wave of violence and retribution against the Hassoun clan" in Tripoli, Lebanon, a military investigator wrote at the time.

Faraj suggested this evidence was either ignored or withheld from prosecutors in 2004.

"Someone at a high-enough level with the proper clearances knew that this man had been abducted, and yet they brought charges forward anyway," Faraj said.

After he was brought back to Camp Lejeune in 2004, Hassoun was allowed to visit family in Utah. With a military court hearing looming, Hassoun disappeared a second time in early 2005. Prosecutors have said his whereabouts were unknown for years.

Hassoun traveled to Lebanon but was arrested by that country's authorities after Interpol issued a bulletin triggered by his deserter status, Faraj said.

Translated Lebanese government documents reference the U.S. charges against Hassoun. Several memos include Lebanese officials discussing whether to allow extradition to the U.S., and eventually a Lebanese justice ministry document from 2006 states there is "no extradition approval."

The documents submitted by the defense to the U.S. military court say Lebanese authorities took his passport and prevented him from traveling.

The documents say Lebanese court proceedings against Hassoun lasted until 2013, and travel restrictions were later lifted.

After that, Faraj said that Hassoun turned himself in to U.S. authorities. He was brought to Camp Lejeune over the summer.

A general decided to proceed with the trial.

Cave, the former Navy lawyer, said that prosecutors often have to build desertion cases from circumstantial evidence "unless the person walks out the door and says 'I'm leaving and I'm never coming back.'"

Army gets military boost from U.S.

BEIRUT: The Lebanese Army Sunday got a much-needed military boost in its open battle against terrorism, with the United States delivering $25 million worth of weapons, including heavy artillery, and France promising to send the first batch of Saudi-funded French arms in April.

The U.S. arms delivery was the latest American military aid, reflecting Washington’s renewed commitment to helping Lebanon battle Islamist militants along the border with Syria.

The U.S. and French decisions highlighted the two countries’ concern over volatile stability in Lebanon, which is facing serious threats from Syria-based jihadis who have repeatedly clashed with Lebanese troops in areas near the border with Syria.

The U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon David Hale, who presided over the delivery of weapons at Beirut Port, said the arms would be used to “defeat the terrorist and extremist threat from Syria.”

“Support for the LAF [Lebanese Armed Forces] remains a top priority for the United States,” Hale said in a statement released by the U.S. Embassy. “Recent attacks against Lebanon’s Army only strengthen America’s resolve to stand in solidarity with the people of Lebanon to confront these threats.”

“We are fighting the same enemy, so our support for you has been swift and continuous,” Hale said. “I am confident that, with the right equipment, Lebanon’s soldiers can defend Lebanon successfully.”

“And the equipment we are providing is exactly wh at the Army leadership has asked for, and exactly what the Army needs,” he added.

Hale, accompanied by Brig. Gen. Manuel Kerejian, director of the LAF Logistics Brigade, said the shipment included over 70 M198 Howitzers and 26 million rounds of ammunition and artillery of various shapes and sizes, including heavy artillery.

Last month, the U.S. delivered dozens of new armored Humvees to help protect Lebanese soldiers.

Hale said Lebanon was the fifth-largest recipient of U.S. military assistance. He added that weapons worth over $100 million were given to Lebanon last year and over $1 billion worth in the last eight years.

“The United States is providing top-of-the-line weapons to the LAF to help Lebanon’s brave soldiers in their confrontation with terrorists,” Hale said. “American assistance to the Lebanese Army is the best of its kind and is the best equipment on the market.”

While the U.S. has donated more than $1 billion in aid to the Lebanese Army over the last decade, most previous donations have been nonlethal equipment, including armored personnel carriers, light aircraft and communication systems. The U.S. military aid along with the expected delivery of Saudi-funded French weapons to the Lebanese Army come as the military is engaged in an open battle against Islamist extremists who have launched several attacks on troops over the past months in areas near the Syrian border, killing and wounding scores of soldiers.

This is the latest military aid promised to Lebanon. In November, France and Saudi Arabia signed an agreement for Paris to provide the Lebanese Army with military equipment, including helicopter gunships, funded by the $3 billion Saudi grant. The first shipment of those weapons is due to arrive in April.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told Prime Minister Tammam Salam on the sidelines of a Munich security conference that France would begin delivering to the Lebanese Army the first batch of French weapons funded by the Saudi grant in April.

“Prime Minister Tammam Salam was informed by the French foreign minister that the first shipment of French weapons ... would arrive in Lebanon in the first week of April,” according to a statement released by Salam’s office.

Fabius assured Salam that France was keen to help Lebanon bolster its security, stability and national unity and strengthen its constitutional institutions.

Referring to French presidential envoy Jean-Francois Girault, who visited Beirut last week as part of a French initiative to break the 8-month-old presidential deadlock, Salam thanked Paris for its efforts in this issue.

Fabius stressed that his country would continue its contacts with all the rival Lebanese parties in order to reach a solution to the presidential crisis.

While in Munich, Salam met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who expressed hopes that dialogue between Lebanon’s rival factions would lead to “a positive change” in the country’s political crisis.

He also met separately with Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi and the foreign ministers of Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Iran and Norway.

During his meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, Salam called on Tehran “to assist in the election of a Lebanese president as it had backed the formation of a coalition government,” according to a statement released by Salam’s office.

In response, Zarif said: “Iran is keen on seeing a new president in Lebanon and is ready to support any agreement reached by the Lebanese, particularly the Christians.”

Speaker Nabih Berri said Iran considered the presidential election to be an internal Lebanese affair. “Iranian officials have relayed this position to Girault,” Berri was quoted by Ain al-Tineh visitors as saying.

Praising the ongoing dialogue between the Future Movement and Hezbollah and last week’s campaign to remove political posters and banners from Beirut, Sidon and Tripoli in line with the agreement reached by the two sides, Berri said the presidential issue would be the next item on the dialogue agenda after the security item.

However, he said the regional situation did not show “any positive signal” that would help break the presidential deadlock.

For his part, MP Walid Jumblatt called on the March 8 and March 14 parties to reach a compromise to end the presidential vacuum and not to wait for an agreement by regional powers that could take a long time.

“The presidential vacuum will gradually lead to undercutting the president’s powers by disregarding previous norms and adopting new norms through successive mechanisms approved by the Cabinet, thus giving the impression that the country is functioning normally without the need to elect a new president,” Jumblatt said in his weekly article to the Progressive Socialist Party’s online Al-Anbaa newspaper.

Campaign looks to save tender hearts

BEIRUT: Every year, 600 children in Lebanon are born with a heart condition known as a congenital anomaly that, if left untreated, will claim the lives of many before they reach their first birthday.

However, while 85 percent of children who suffer from the affliction – the No. 1 killer of children under the age of 1 – can survive if they undergo surgery, the cost of the procedure is beyond the means of many.

“Suppose you are not able to operate [on a newborn with a congenital anomaly] because there is no money,” said Dr. Ramzi Ashoush, a specialist in pediatric cardiac surgery and founder of Heartbeat. “So the equation becomes: If there is money they live, if there is no money they die, which is hard to admit.”

A new campaign by Heartbeat, an NGO that works specifically on covering the cost of surgeries for infants born with congenital anomalies, is hoping to raise more funds to help these children. Last week Heartbeat distributed 100,000 cardboard piggy banks to schools and companies partnered with the organization.

Over the next month people can deposit any spare change they have into the piggy banks, which will be dropped off between March 9 and 14 at Bank Audi branches, from where they will be collected and donated to Heartbeat. The average cost of a surgery for a child ranges between $4,000 and $5,000.

“Some people will give them back with LL250 inside,” Wadih Remo, the managing director of Heartbeat, said. “But this 250 multiplied by 100,000 people, that’s going to secure the required funds.”

The box itself has a picture of the Lebanese “national hero” Maxime Chaya, the man who raised a Lebanese flag on each of the world’s seven summits, to relay to people that they too can be heroes, Renno said.

Chaya’s documentary about his boat trip across the Indian Ocean premiered last week at the ABC malls in Dbayeh and Ashrafieh as part of the Heartbeat box campaign.

The organization launched the campaign as part of its 10-year anniversary celebration. The French “Operation Yellow Coins,” which was chaired by Bernadette Chirac, the wife of former French President Jacques Chirac, inspired the idea.

“Operation Yellow Coins,” which was started in 1989, is an organization that distributes piggy banks to schools to raise money for different pediatric hospital programs each year. It draws its name from the color of the franc, the former French currency. It has been very successful, raising 4.1 million euros in 2009 that funded 480 projects in 2010.

The Heartbeat box marks a new fundraising approach for the NGO, which is known for hosting concerts each year to gather donations.

Ashoush founded Heartbeat 10 years ago for a combination of reasons. During his time in medical school in the late ’80s, he and some fellow students formed a band and put on successful concerts. There was a popular demand to get them to perform again.

Upon returning to Lebanon after a stay in France, Ashoush noticed how the economic situation in the country was preventing people from accessing life-saving surgeries.

“People were asking us, ‘Why don’t you sing?’ So [we thought] why don’t we use all these musical talents and put them in the service of this cause and this is how the idea [was born],” Ashoush said.

Ashoush directs all of the performances and he and his partners select the new performers.

“[Dr. Ashoush] is the right of passage,” Remo explained. “Quite often during the year we get a phone call saying, ‘I want to sing and I want to sing with Heartbeat,’ so I direct them to Dr. Ramzi.”

All doctors are then put through an audition, styled similar to The Voice, in which Ashoush and his band mates sit on a panel to decide whether the “artists” make the grade, Remo said.

Dr. Jack Boutros is one of Heartbeat’s performers but he joined through a different route. During his fifth year of medical school he participated in a talent show whose panel Ashoush happened to be sitting on. Afterward, Ashoush asked Boutros if he wanted to join Heartbeat.

“I had been to a few Heartbeat concerts before so I said, ‘Definitely I want to be a part of it!’” Boutros recalled.

Since starting in 2005, Heartbeat has steadily grown from helping 30 children a year to 275 in 2014. They’ve also expanded their operations from being specifically at the Hotel Dieu Hospital to now treating patients at Rizk Hospital as well.

Ashoush estimated that only 100 of the more than 300 newborns that require surgery for congenital anomalies were receiving them prior to Heartbeat’s inception.

The group is focused on covering the gap between the cost of surgery and what families can afford. Jihad Farouche, a social worker from the Health Ministry at Hotel Dieu, said that the government also provides up to 75 percent of the cost based on a patient’s financial situation.

However, this help is only extended to Lebanese citizens. Renno said the influx of Syrian and Iraqi refugees has expanded the amount of patients in need. Last year they helped 30-40 Iraqi children, while up to 10 percent of their patients were Syrian.

To fill the void of government aid, Heartbeat has partnered with several international organizations to help provide the necessary operations.

Renno estimated that the number of Syrian refugee children born with heart disease could actually match the number of Lebanese children born with the same affliction, dramatically increasing the aid required.

U.S. military shipment to raise Lebanese Army to next level

BEIRUT: The $25 million weapons donation from the United States to Lebanon will provide the Lebanese Armed Forces with a new strategic advantage in fighting rebel groups on the Lebanese border, experts say. “The weapons that the Army received will raise their standards and take them to another level,” said Brig. Gen. Naji Malaab, editor-in-chief of Defense and Security Arabia magazine. “The short and long range of the weapons will help in pushing jihadi groups [that the Army is fighting on the border] back.”

The shipment arrived onboard a vessel that docked at Beirut Port and the contents were presented for the media to see Sunday morning. The shipment contained 70 M198 Howitzers and 26 million rounds of ammunition. These came in addition to a fleet of bulletproof Humvees that arrived last month.

The M198 Howitzers will be of the most use to the Army. Howitzers are cannon-like artillery weapons that propel munitions at medium and long distances.

The M198 is a lightweight replacement to the World War II-era M114 Howitzer and is a lot more mobile than its predecessor. It is air-transportable and can also be parachuted into battle zones.

According to Mario Abou Zeid, an analyst at the Carnegie Middle East Center, the Army currently has M114 Howitzers in its arsenal and the upgrade to M198s will be extremely useful in the mountainous terrain on the borders of Lebanon.

“The advantage that [the M198s] can give [the Army] is that they are very mobile, they can really be deployed easily,” he told The Daily Star. “The Army will need [this on] ... the outskirts of Arsal [and] the outskirts of Ras Baalbek. These are very mountainous areas that they need such midsized cannons.”

Militants affiliated with ISIS and the Nusra Front in Syria have repeatedly carried out incursions into northeast Lebanon, namely in the outskirts of the villages of Arsal and Ras Baalbek.

In August 2014, militants briefly took over the village of Arsal and kidnapped 37 soldiers and policemen, 25 of whom remain in custody.

A U.S. Embassy source, who oversaw the weapons shipment and spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the M198s have a range of 30 to 40 kilometers and their main use is to assist ground troops that are engaged in battle.

Abou Zeid added that the M198s would give the Army a strategic advantage as their 155mm munitions provide “surgical” accuracy. He said using ammunition that exceeds 155 mm, such as 230mm and 260mm, sacrifices accuracy and leads to total destruction, which puts engaged ground troops at risk.

During clashes between the Army and Fatah al-Islam militants in the north Lebanon Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared in 2007, the Army ran out of 155mm ammunition very quickly due to the intensity of the battles and was forced to resort to 230mm rounds, Abou Zeid said.

A similar scenario, which took place in Arsal during the clashes between the Army and extremist groups that attempted to overrun the town in August, has forced the Army to ration its 155mm ammunition, he added.

Therefore, the 26 million rounds of small, medium and heavy artillery will be of immediate assistance to the military.

“When [the Army has] such a tremendous amount of ammunition, they will not really be thinking about whether they run out of ammo,” Abou Zeid said. “The artillery officers will not have to think twice about using the ammunition.”

The M198s can also be loaded with illumination rounds that can help light up dark areas and smoke rounds that can help conceal troops during operations.

The embassy source said the fact that the Army already has experience using Howitzers will also expedite there usage as there will be no need to train the troops.

“Each [weapon] has a logistical trail [the time needed to train soldiers on using and maintaining them],” the source said. “Once you have guys that know how to use these, know how to fix them, it’s better sometimes to get more of that.”

The source added that half of the shipment had been used by the U.S. Army and Marines in the past and were considered excess defense articles – i.e. weapons that are no longer in use due to downsizing or because they have been retired.

The M198 is now being replaced by the M777 Howitzer in the U.S. armed services.

While these weapons will provide immediate assistance to the Lebanese Army’s fight on the border, Abou Zeid said they are not a long-term solution to the Army’s deficiencies.

“These Howitzers. and the ammunition they have for these Howitzers, they could serve the Army in this fight temporarily,” he explained. “It’s not something really sustainable. It’s exactly what the Army needs at a precise time and not a long-term scale.”

“The only thing that could change that is the support from the late Saudi King Abdullah, the $3 billion through the French firms.”

Riyadh pledged $3 billion to fund the purchase of the French weapons, to include helicopter gunships, armored personnel carriers, heavy artillery and surveillance drones.

The first deliveries of Saudi-funded French weapons to help Lebanon combat jihadis will begin in April, a spokesman for Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Sunday.

The military aid, which will allow the Lebanese Army to modernize, will be supplied over the next three years, the spokesman said.

Abou Zeid said the shipment would include equipment to boost Lebanon’s border control and intelligence services as well as military gear.

“When the Lebanese Army receives the French weapons they will be able to carry out operations like the world’s most advanced armies,” Malaab said.

Abu Faour, Beirut governor in fish feud

BEIRUT: Health Minister Wael Abu Faour and Beirut Governor Ziad Chebib traded jabs over the weekend over the closure of the Beirut fish market, with each accusing the other of corruption.

Chebib said that the Director General of the Commercial Markets Administration Yasser Debian, who happens to manage the fish market, also works as an adviser to the health minister.

The CMA head, according to Chebib, has “taken advantage of his position as an adviser to the health minister ... in order to prevent the food safety campaign from affecting the fish market.”

In response, Abu Faour’s media office issued a statement, accusing the governor of “taking advantage of his position as a governor to preserve the reality of corruption in Beirut’s slaughterhouse and other divisions of Beirut’s governorate.”

The Beirut fish market was closed Saturday for one week for rehabilitation, after business and union officials announced the decision to accept a temporary closure.

Chebib, who accompanied security forces during a surprise raid on the market last week, ordered its closure Thursday. Chebib said then that the Beirut Municipality’s health department had carried out an assessment of the facility and found the market to be “infested” with rats and insects.

The governor’s decision prompted a backlash from the head of the CMA, who accused Chebib of inaction concerning a bone-grinding mill used by Beirut’s slaughterhouse.

“The health minister has requested shutting down the bone-grinding mill many times? Why is it still operating?” Debian asked, accusing the governor of targeting the fish market because of his “inability” to order the closure of the mill.

In a statement, the governor said he had already told the contractor who owns the mill to shut down operations. However, he did not specify why his decision was not enforced.

Over the weekend, Health Ministry inspectors shut down a sweets shop and a food warehouse in Beirut and east Lebanon, the ministry announced in a statement.

An unidentified sweets shop in Taalbaya, in the Bekaa Valley, was shut down after discovering some rotten products and others with fake expiration dates.

Another team of inspectors also shut down a food warehouse belonging to Adonis Spices in the Beirut suburb of Bir Hasan, the statement added.

Spices, ice cubes and fish were found stored in manners that violated food safety standards, the statement explained.

The ministry also announced that a dairy product factory in the Bekaa Valley belonging to Mustapha al-Shammouri has been giving the green light to resume operations after an inspection Saturday determined that all violations had been corrected.

The moves were the latest in a nationwide crackdown on food safety violations that the Abu Faour launched in November.

The health minister Sunday also expressed hopes that his ministry’s sweeping food safety campaign would develop into a full reformist approach that could be applied to several issues in the country.

“Our ambition as the Progressive Socialist Party is to break this ongoing cycle of corruption,” he said. The food safety campaign, which began as the policy of one ministry, has become a governmental policy after it was adopted by several other ministries, he added.

Machnouk backs amending smoking ban: eatery owners

Lebanon’s political scions step up

In an interview with a local newspaper this week, MP Walid Jumblatt said his resignation from his parliamentary post...

Inter-Christian divides blamed for presidential standoff

The latest flurry of foreign diplomatic activity designed to break Lebanon’s 8-month-old presidential stalemate has failed to produce any tangible results, raising fears that the country’s top Christian post will remain vacant for quite some time, political sources said.

The most recent senior foreign official to visit Lebanon in an attempt to resolve the presidential crisis was French presidential envoy Jean-Francois Girault, who ended a two-day trip to Beirut Thursday, without making any progress in his talks with rival Lebanese leaders that would set the stage for the election of a new president.

While the presidential standoff has defied local, regional and international initiatives, the foreign envoys that visited Lebanon recently and held talks with Lebanese leaders have blamed political disputes among the country’s main Christian parties for the deadlock, the sources said.

“Every foreign envoy who visited Lebanon and met with officials here had prepared a report [to his government] by adding a clause saying: ‘The [presidential] obstacle lies in inter-Christian differences,’” according to the sources.

The ambassador of an Arab country, which currently wields great influence in Lebanon, said during a social function a few days ago that the election of a successor to former President Michel Sleiman, whose six-year term ended May 25, should take place in the next three months “because the situation can no longer endure this vacancy in the state’s highest level post.”

The ambassador said he believed that Iran, which has a say in the presidential election, has mandated the presidential crisis to Hezbollah, an organization skillful in arranging its cards and bargaining over them.

Since Hezbollah is adamant on its support for Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun for the presidency and “will not accept another candidate” as Mahmoud Qmati, a member of Hezbollah’s political bureau, declared after visiting Aoun at his residence in Rabieh Friday, this certainly signals that the presidential vote has been put on hold.

According to the ambassador, international efforts have been intensified to try to resolve the presidential crisis, given the importance of the election of a president in this fateful period.

Although the Americans agree with the Russians, Saudis, French and Iranians on this point in particular, the ambassador said that so far “the result is zero,” adding that all the diplomatic activity was merely exploratory to probe the parties’ intentions and sound out their views on how to break the deadlock.

For his part, a diplomat described the latest French activity over the presidential election as an attempt by Paris to reassert its presence in Lebanon, but this activity cannot be translated into the situation on the ground.

France has been trying to regain some of the role it has lost at the peak of American and Russian activity across the region, while America is mainly concerned with mobilizing the world in the fight against ISIS terrorism, and Iran is active in strengthening its influence in the Middle Eastern arena, the diplomat said.

A Lebanese politician who had the chance to meet Girault told The Daily Star that the French activity over Lebanon focused chiefly on prodding the Lebanese factions to decide upon a president and that the decision-making countries have kicked the presidential ball into their court.

Girault, according to the politician, voiced his concern over the considerable danger facing Lebanon in light of the Christians’ reluctance to play their main role in their country.

There is no doubt that the Lebanese presidency has become tied to international decisions that are fluctuating during the course of negotiations over both Iran’s nuclear program and the proposed solutions to the region’s crises, the politician said.

On the eve of a reported meeting between Girault and Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai in Rome, sources close to Bkirki, the seat of the Maronite patriarchate, said that Pope Francis told Rai during their meeting Friday that the Vatican was continuing in its efforts to encourage the Big Powers to exert pressure on regional parties to facilitate the presidential election.

The Holy See does not have any preference in the names of presidential candidates and the Vatican’s contacts are particularly focused on the American side, which currently has strong cards in its ongoing negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program, the sources said.

Lebanon to press EU for more help with refugees

BEIRUT: Lebanon will urge the European Union Monday to do more to help minimize the fallout of the Syrian refugee crisis and to fund key infrastructure projects in host communities, Lebanese ministerial sources told The Daily Star.

Three Lebanese ministers – Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil, Economy and Trade Minister Alain Hakim and Energy and Water Resources Minister Arthur Nazarian – will make the request during a meeting of the EU-Lebanon Association Council in Brussels, the sources said.

The meeting will convene Monday to take stock of achievements to date of the EU-Lebanon partnership and to define joint priorities for future cooperation. High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini is expected to attend the talks.

Garnering more support for Lebanon in international circles and minimizing the fallout of the refugee crisis will figure high on the agenda of the three Lebanese ministers attending the talks, the sources said.

The sources said that the Lebanese government wanted the remainder of an EU allocation of more than 130 million euros ($164.8 million) for 2014-16 to be used to fund infrastructure projects across the country.

Unveiled in November, the Lebanese government’s road map for assisting host communities, dubbed “The Lebanon Recovery Fund,” includes goals such as improving infrastructure and hospitals while facilitating the provision of hydrocarbons, electricity and water.

So far around 52 million euros have been paid, but the Lebanese government is trying to convince EU officials to consign the rest of the allocation to fund infrastructure projects in host communities, particularly those which have suffered the most due to the refugee crisis.

The issue had already been raised by Hakim with EU officials during Prime Minister Tammam Salam’s visit to Brussels in December.

In October 2014, Hakim and former European Commissioner for Neighborhood Policy Stefan Fule inked a memorandum of understanding setting the priorities and financial allocations for EU-Lebanon cooperation for 2014-16.

At the time, officials said the focus of EU-Lebanon cooperation for 2014-16 would center on three priority sectors: justice and security system reform; social cohesion, sustainable economic development and vulnerable groups; and sustainable and transparent management of energy and natural resources.

With the new EU appointments, Lebanon is hoping that the EU will revisit its fiscal policies regarding the country, according to the sources.

The sources hope that the new Neighborhood Policy commissioner Johannes Hahn will revise and reconsider the standing policies and budgets allocated to countries.

The sources noted that the Lebanese government also sought a “unified vision” with the EU over aid packages and a framework so that aid would be earmarked through specialized funds like the Lebanon Recovery Fund and the Multi-Donor Trust Fund for Lebanon, overseen by the World Bank.

Obama's 'Body Man' Looks Back On His Presidential Education

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Barack Obama hands a gift from a supporter to his assistant Reggie Love during his 2008 campaign for presidency. Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty Images hide caption

itoggle caption Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty Images

Barack Obama hands a gift from a supporter to his assistant Reggie Love during his 2008 campaign for presidency.

Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty Images

Power Forward

My Presidential Education

by Reggie Love

Hardcover, 213 pages | purchase

• Nonfiction


• Biography & Memoir

More on this book:

• NPR reviews, interviews and more


• Read an excerpt

Reggie Love was Barack Obama's body man during his first campaign for president and into his time in office. It was a demanding job: part personal assistant, part aide, part whatever the boss needs you to do, whenever he needs it.

Love, the author of the new memoir Power Forward: My Presidential Education, tells NPR's Arun Rath that he remembers the first time he met then-Senator Obama. He had traveled to Washington for a job interview.

"I was 23 years old and we had a brief exchange," he remembers. "[Obama] asks me what my ambitions are. Would I someday want to run for something? I think I was less than impressive. I was kind of overwhelmed and under-prepared."

At that point, Love, who played both basketball and football at Duke, had spent time with the Dallas Cowboys and Green Bay Packers, but hadn't been drafted and was realizing that he wouldn't have a career as a professional athlete.

He tells Rath about what it was like to leave that dream behind — and how he handled shooting hoops with the president.

Interview Highlights

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Before working with Barack Obama, Reggie Love studied and played basketball at Duke University. Anna Ruch/Courtesy of Simon & Schuster hide caption

itoggle caption Anna Ruch/Courtesy of Simon & Schuster

Before working with Barack Obama, Reggie Love studied and played basketball at Duke University.

Anna Ruch/Courtesy of Simon & Schuster

On transitioning from athlete to political aide

It was a weird time for me because something I had spent so much of my time invested into, in terms of just being an athlete, was coming to an end. I was kind of grappling with that a bit. But I think, more importantly, what I really thought was that then-Senator Obama was very impressive. I knew I wanted to learn from him and I wanted to participate in the political process and serve.

On the role of the body man

The biggest part about it is that you want to be prepared to anticipate the needs that may come or arise as the candidate or the principal is making [his] way through the day. It's everything from making sure they have a proper meal to eat at lunchtime or dinnertime or whatever, to making sure that they are prepared with all the detailed information they may need for an event. There were some days when I would sit next to the teleprompter operator to make sure that while the candidate was on a riff, that the teleprompter operator didn't get too out of control with where he was scrolling the text. You're a problem-solver.

On what he shared with the president

"We were kinda the only two guys [in the West Wing] who knew what it was like not to be able to catch a cab in New York."

- Reggie Love

I felt like we could identify with one another a lot because, though we have a very diverse team and a diverse administration, you know, there weren't a lot of black men hovering around in that first floor of the West Wing. And I thought that was sort of a bonding issue. We were kinda the only two guys who knew what it was like not to be able to catch a cab in New York.

On playing basketball with Obama

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There was a little pressure to perform. You didn't want to be the guy who caused the candidate to lose the game. I got to admit, I enjoy playing with the president on his team, and I don't really like playing against him ... because we always sort of get into it about calls. Like, 'That wasn't a foul,' or 'He was out of bounds,' or 'He double-dribbled.' It's hard to push back at times.

On what working with Obama taught him about race and power in politics

Anything's possible. When I was growing up, when I was 13 or 12 or whatever, I don't know that I could have said that as a young African-American male in the South. And I think that's a very powerful thing, and think that is the reason why I noticed there wasn't a lot of diversity on the Hill. I wanted to be a part of that change.

Read an excerpt of Power Forward

Colombian Rebels Invite Miss Universe To Join Peace Talks

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Miss Colombia Paulina Vega poses during the Miss Universe pageant in Miami, on Jan. 25. Vega has been invited to participate in peace talks between her country's government and Marxist rebels. Wilfredo Lee/AP hide caption

itoggle caption Wilfredo Lee/AP

Miss Colombia Paulina Vega poses during the Miss Universe pageant in Miami, on Jan. 25. Vega has been invited to participate in peace talks between her country's government and Marxist rebels.

Wilfredo Lee/AP

Future beauty pageant contestants might want to be careful with all that loose talk about "world peace," unless they're willing to put up: after Miss Universe Paulina Vega expressed a desire to help end her native Colombia's 50-year civil war, she received an invitation from FARC rebels to join truce talks.

Vega, 22, a business student and model from Colombia's coastal city of Barranquilla, was crowned last month. Since then, she's said in interviews that she would be willing to travel to the negotiations in Havana, according to Reuters.

On Friday, the peace delegation of the Marxist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia posted this online:

"We have read with interest about your desire to contribute with your good offices to peace and reconciliation of the Colombian people," FARC's delegation to the talks wrote.

"We welcome your willingness to travel to Havana and we invite you," the statement said. "Be assured that we are willing to address your concerns and consider your views a valuable contribution to peace; we are waiting for your confirmation and your contribution."

The invitation didn't say how Vega might be expected to advance the peace efforts. She did not immediately responded to the offer.

Reuters adds: "Representatives at the talks have so far reached agreement on three of five agenda points, including land reform, an end to the illegal drugs trade and political participation for ex-guerrillas."

France to deliver weapons to Lebanon in April: FM

BEIRUT: France will begin delivering weapons purchased with a $3 billion Saudi grant to the Lebanese military in two months, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Sunday.

“Prime Minister Tammam Salam was informed by the French Foreign Minister that the first shipment of weapons...will arrive to Lebanon in the first week of April,” read a statement by the premier’s news office.

The Foreign Minister’s comments were made during a meeting with the prime minister on the sidelines of a security conference in Munich.

Fabius relayed to Salam France’s keenness on preserving the stability of Lebanon as well as the country’s national unity and state institutions.

For his part, Salam thanked Paris for its efforts regarding Lebanon’s presidential dossier. In response, Fabius stressed that his country would continue its talks with all relevant parties in order to reach a solution to Lebanon’s nine-month-long Presidential stalemate.

The weapons deal, first announced in December by former President Michel Sleiman, comes as the poorly equipped Lebanese Army battles jihadis in the north and along its border with war-torn Syria.

Salam also met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov who expressed hopes that dialogue between Lebanon’s rival political factions would lead to “positive changes” in the country’s political climate.

The Russian Foreign Minister stressed Moscow’s continued support of Lebanon in managing the mass influx of Syrian refugees, announcing that his country would send direct aid through the UNHCR.

Salam also met with The UAE foreign minister, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahyan; Egypt’s Foreign Minister, Sameh Shokry and Iraqi Prime Minister, Haidar al-Abadi as well as Norway’s Foreign Minister.

Earlier Sunday, Salam met with Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on the sidelines of the meeting. The Lebanese premier called on Tehran "to assist in the election of a Lebanese president," according to a statement released by the premier's news office.

“Every day that goes by without the election of a Christian Maronite President leads to the accumulation of negative effects that impact Lebanon and its image as a unique model of coexistence in the region,” Salam said.

Lebanon has been without president since May 2014, when former President Michel Sleiman left office at the end of his term.

For his part, Zarif said that “Iran is keen on seeing a new President in Lebanon, and is ready to support any agreement that is reached between the Lebanese and [between] the Christians especially,”

Iran’s interests involve the preservation of stability of Lebanon, Zarif said, noting that Tehran does not want any security breaches in Lebanon or on its borders.

McConnell's Call For 'Regular Order' May Not Mean What It Used To

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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky returns to his office on Capitol Hill in Washington on Jan. 29, 2015. J. Scott Applewhite/AP hide caption

itoggle caption J. Scott Applewhite/AP

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky returns to his office on Capitol Hill in Washington on Jan. 29, 2015.

J. Scott Applewhite/AP

"Regular order" is a phrase you'd normally hear only from Congress nerds, but it's increasingly common in conversations about the Senate this year.

When Mitch McConnell became Senate majority leader, he promised he'd restore what he called regular order in that chamber. But Democrats have been accusing him of violating regular order ever since.

When you listen to senators talk about regular order, it sounds like this fabulous, amazing thing. For Republican John McCain of Arizona, regular order is about getting stuff done.

"Regular order leads to a conclusion; a final vote," McCain says.

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For Democrat Ben Cardin of Maryland, it's about reaching across the aisle.

"It's respect for each member of the Senate and the traditions of the Senate, where we try to reach some common ground [and] a broader consensus," Cardin says.

According to Congressional Quarterly's Roll Call , "The regular order can be defined as those rules, precedents and customs of Congress that constitute an orderly and deliberative policymaking process." If this is regular order, who wouldn't want it in the U.S. Senate? But can you make it happen just by wanting it?

McConnell — the man who has pledged to return regular order to the Senate he loves — says there's a specific way to do it.

"We need to get committees working again. We need to recommit to a rational, functioning appropriations process," McConnell said on the floor last month during the first full day of the new Congress. "We need to open up ... the legislative process in a way that allows more amendments from both sides."

"More amendments" has already become a Republican bragging point. In the debate on the Keystone oil pipeline last month, Republicans crowed that they'd voted on more amendments to that one bill than on all the bills on the floor last year.

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And yes, technically they did have votes, but also saw dozens and dozens of amendments die after requiring weeks of debate on a bill that President Obama says he'll veto anyway. So was this the glorious return of regular order?

"You can call it what you want," says Thomas Mann of the Brookings Institution. "Was it constructive? No. Was it serious about doing something? No."

Mann says you can go through the motions, but regular order isn't about the motions or the process.

"It's all toward an end of writing law, of solving a problem," he says. "It's sincere; it's not just strategic."

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In other words, Mann says regular order is not about following a rule book. It has a broader meaning from the Senate of the past, when debate proceeded with a genuine desire to find solutions. In the 1960s for example, bipartisan coalitions passed civil rights and Great Society legislation; in the 1980s coalitions rewrote the tax code.

So Senate Republicans can hold all the committee hearings they want, allow all the amendment votes they want, but Sarah Binder of George Washington University says that doesn't make what they're doing the old ideal of regular order, because the partisan strife keeps getting worse.

"I think that's kind of the sad part of the story," Binder says. "It's kind of hard to get back to a Senate where the Senate works in that type of a fluid, collegial place. Because that's just not the world — partisan or ideological — that we live in."

So far at least, for this Senate, the dream of regular order remains elusive.

Potential Candidates Suffer From Measles: The Week In Politics

Audio for this story from Weekend Edition Sunday will be available at approximately 12:00 p.m. ET.

NPR's Rachel Martin speaks with political correspondent Mara Liasson about the politics of vaccines, the budget, and what three Obama officials are leaving the White House means for the administration.

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Abu Faour: Unified prescription forms are essential

BEIRUT: Health Minister Wael Abu Faour announced Sunday that he would not back down from calling on Lebanese doctors to adopt a unified prescription form.

“The unified prescription form is an essential demand that won’t be revoked,” the health minister said in a statement released by his news office. “If there was one objective reason [urging me] to go back on my [demand] then I would be willing to reconsider. But there isn’t a single objective reason [to do so].”

Last month, Abu Faour asked Walid Ammar, the director-general of the Health Ministry, to make sure that all physicians adopted a unified prescription form.

Stipulated in a law endorsed by Parliament in 2010, the form aims to better monitor the flow of medication and to serve as a legal document to prove consent between the doctor and the patient when an agreement is made to switch to generic drugs, which are usually cheaper than brand names.

However, The Order of Physicians, which was tasked to print the form, refused to adopt the decision before the National Social Security Fund amends its bylaws, which do not allow pharmacists to sell patients a substitute for the medicine prescribed, preventing patients from switching to generic drugs without a doctor’s consent.

The health minister said that he was “suspicious” of the motives behind rejecting the proposal to adopt a unified prescription form, while stressing that the move would benefit doctors and patients alike.

“Reform will not work against the doctors at all, but instead [it will work] to their benefit,” the health minister concluded.

Lebanese Army receives US weapon shipment

BEIRUT: A shipment of U.S. weapons purchased with a $1 billion Saudi grant to the Lebanese Army arrived Sunday to Beirut’s port.

The shipment included 72 rocket launchers, medium caliber weapons and ammunition containers, according to the state-run National News Agency.

Representatives of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut attended Sunday’s shipment delivery alongside high-ranking Army officials.

The weapons delivery by the U.S. Army is a part of the $1 billion Saudi grant coordinated by former Prime Minister Saad Hariri.

While the U.S. has donated more than a billion dollars in aid to the Lebanese Army over the last decade, most previous donations have been non-lethal equipment, including armored personnel carriers, light aircraft and communication systems.

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Governor, Health Minister in dust-up over fish

BEIRUT: Health Minister Wael Abu Faour and Beirut Governor Ziad Chebib traded jabs Saturday over the closure of the Beirut fish market, with each accusing the other of corruption.

In a statement issued Saturday evening, Chebib said that the Director General of the Commercial Markets Administration Yasser Debian, who happens to manage the fish market, also works as an advisor for the health minister.

The CMA head, according to Chebib, has “taken advantage of his position as an advisor to the health minister...in order to prevent the food safety campaign from affecting the fish market.”

In response, Abu Faour’s news office issued a statement, accusing the governor of “taking advantage of his position as a governor to preserve the reality of corruption in Beirut’s slaughterhouse and other divisions of Beirut’s governorate.”

The Beirut fish market was closed Saturday for one week for rehabilitation, after business and union officials announced the decision to accept a temporary closure.

Chebib, who accompanied security forces during a surprise raid on the market last week, ordered its closure Thursday.

The governor’s decision prompted a backlash from the head of the CMA who accused Chebib of inaction concerning a bone grinding mill used by Beirut’s slaughterhouse.

“The health minister has requested shutting down the bone grinding mill many times, why is it still operating?” Debian asked, accusing the governor of targeting the fish market because of his "inability" to order the closure of the mill.

In a statement, the governor said he had already told the contractor who owns the mill to shut down operations. However, he did not specify why his decision was not enforced.