{"id":514448,"date":"2025-10-20T13:14:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T13:14:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/514448\/"},"modified":"2025-10-20T13:14:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T13:14:13","slug":"us-envoy-warns-lebanon-of-major-chaos-if-next-years-elections-delayed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/514448\/","title":{"rendered":"US envoy warns Lebanon of \u2018major chaos\u2019 if next year\u2019s elections delayed"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>ISTANBUL<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>US Special Envoy Tom Barrack warned Monday against political turmoil in Lebanon over the postponement of next year\u2019s parliamentary elections.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPostponing the 2026 elections under the pretext of war would ignite major chaos within Lebanon, fracturing an already fragile political system and reigniting sectarian distrust,\u201d Barrack said on the US social media company X.<\/p>\n<p>He said Hezbollah\u2019s continued military and political dominance could delay elections to preserve its power base, \u201cto rebuild militarily, re-organize politically, and renegotiate the post-war balance of power before facing the electorate.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Barrack warned that any delay of the polls would exacerbate divisions among Christian, Sunni, and reformist blocs and risk triggering nationwide unrest similar to the 2019 protests.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cElections in such a moment would expose [Hezbollah\u2019s] weakened standing, risk electoral setbacks for its allies, and embolden rival factions to challenge its dominance within Lebanon\u2019s fragile sectarian system,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Parliamentary elections are scheduled to take place in May to elect members of the 128-seat parliament.<\/p>\n<p>There was no immediate comment from Hezbollah on Barrack\u2019s comments.<\/p>\n<p>Describing a recently reached ceasefire deal in Gaza as \u201cthe first tesserae in a renewed mosaic of partnership,\u201d the US envoy called Syria and Lebanon \u201ctwo vital pieces of this architecture of peace.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He called on Lebanon to \u201cquickly separate\u201d from Hezbollah and to complete the disarmament of the group to restore full state control over armed forces.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNow is the time for Lebanon to act,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>In August, the Lebanese government approved a plan proposed by Barrack to confine all weapons under state control. Hezbollah rejected the plan and stressed that it will retain its arms until Israel withdraws from five border outposts that it occupies in the south in violation of a ceasefire.<\/p>\n<p>Under the terms of the November 2024 truce, Israel was supposed to fully withdraw from southern Lebanon by January 2025. However, it has so far only partially pulled out troops and continues to maintain a military presence at five border outposts.<\/p>\n<p>                            &#13;<br \/>\n                                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aa.com.tr\/en\/p\/subscription\/1001\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"font-size:12px; color:#444; text-decoration:none;\" rel=\"noopener\">&#13;<br \/>\n                                    Anadolu Agency website contains only a portion of the news stories offered to subscribers in the AA News Broadcasting System (HAS), and in summarized form. <b style=\"color:#1897F7\">Please contact us for subscription options.<\/b>&#13;<br \/>\n                                <\/a>&#13;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ISTANBUL US Special Envoy Tom Barrack warned Monday against political turmoil in Lebanon over the postponement of next&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":514449,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5311],"tags":[5340,836,837,838,49,978,168081,659],"class_list":{"0":"post-514448","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-anadolu-ajansi","9":"tag-hezbollah","10":"tag-israel","11":"tag-lebanon","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-us","14":"tag-us-special-envoy-tom-barrack","15":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115406678519444885","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=514448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514448\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/514449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=514448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=514448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=514448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}