The consensual agreement concluded by the Lebanese government with two foreign companies, one Saudi and one Irish, to construct Terminal 2 at the airport is still interacting today with more threads emerging related to it.
On April 14, 2022, the expansion of the airport was proposed in the cabinet session and outside the agenda. The issue outside the agenda has great implications, the most prominent of which is collusion between the President’s team, led by Gebran Bassil and Prime Minister Najib Mikati, otherwise it would not have been raised outside the agenda.
Surprisingly, the author of the proposal in the Council of Ministers is Minister of Tourism Walid Nassar, not Minister Ali Hamiyah, who today alone bears the burden of the project.
Those close to Minister of Tourism Walid Nassar do not deny that he was the first to propose this project to the Council of Ministers, but they assert that he was surprised by the announcement of the project and its timing.
The issue was previously raised in the Council of Ministers. Some of the financiers associated with the airport expansion project communicated with some parties and parliamentary blocs so as not to obstruct the project. Here, the Lebanese Forces party stands out, which is hiding today behind the head of the Public Procurement Authority, Jean Al-Alya, awaiting what will be issued by it.
The position of the national movement is not better than the forces. Rather, it is primarily responsible through its minister putting forward the project from outside the agenda, which confirms its involvement in the deal.
The Public Works and Transport Committee is scheduled to hear next Thursday from the Minister of Works, Ali Hamiyah, in the presence of the Director of Civil Aviation, Fadi Al-Hassan, the head of the Audit Bureau, Judge Muhammad Badran, and the head of the Public Procurement Authority, Jean Al-Alia.
The sources assert that suspending the airport expansion agreement is the best solution so that the file takes its correct legal path in terms of securing the elements of transparency and competition, and a clear opinion from the Audit Bureau and the Public Procurement Authority, and this is what the committee will recommend, according to the “spot-shot” information.
While awaiting Thursday’s session and what comes out of it, we turn to the Works Committee, with its chairman, Sajea Attia, and its members: Hussein Jishi, Ibrahim Mneimneh, Taha Naji, Firas Salloum, Nada Bustani, Hussein Hajj Hassan, Nabil Badr, Salim Aoun, Antoine Habshi, Melhem Touq, Abdel Karim Kabbara, Fouad Makhzoumi, Faisal Al-Sayegh, Muhammad Yahya, Muhammad Khawaja, Ahmed Al-Khair.
Be aware that you are under the media microscope so that there are no other violations at the expense of the Lebanese and the state.
