Mikati discussed the proposal with Ali Larijani, the senior adviser to Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei, in Beirut on Friday.

The caretaker prime minister said the Lebanese government wants the war to end and resolution 1701 to be implemented ”in all its details,” according to a statement on the talks issued by his office.

A Lebanese official confirmed that Beirut has received a copy of a draft proposal based on UN Security Council resolution 1701, which ended the last Israel-Hezbollah war in 2006.

Hezbollah officials are said to be studying the draft.

According to Lebanese media, US Ambassador to Lebanon Lisa Johnson gave a draft proposal to Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri who has been leading the talks representing Hezbollah.

After meeting Mikati and Berri, Larijani said the main purpose of his visit was ”to loudly say that we will stand by Lebanon’s government and people.”

Asked if he was trying to thwart US ceasefire mediation, Larijani said, ”We are not trying to blow up any effort, but we want to solve the problem and we will stand by Lebanon, whatever the circumstances.”

Iranian support critical to Hezbollah’s military power

Iran is a main backer of Hezbollah and for decades has been funding and arming the Lebanese militant group.

Hezbollah began firing rockets into northern Israel the day after Hamas’ surprise attack on Israel on 7 October last year which ignited the war in Gaza, prompting exchanges between the two sides ever since.

An estimated 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the Hamas-led attacks that day, and more than 200 were taken hostage.

Israel escalated its strikes in Lebanon in late September, vowing to cripple Hezbollah and end its barrages in Israel, and launched a ground operation into the country.

More than 3,400 people have been killed in Lebanon by Israeli fire – 80% of them in the past month – according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry.

Ekwutosblog gathered that the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ola Olukoyede, has blamed the unstable power supply in Nigeria on corruption.
Olukoyede disclosed that contractors awarded projects supply electrical equipment often opted for substandard materials.

He stated that this was the major cause of frequent equipment failures, outages, and grid collapses.

The EFCC chair made the revelation during a visit by the House Committee on Anti-Corruption and Financial Crimes in Abuja on Tuesday.

Olukoyede lamented that Nigerians would be in tears if the Commission discloses what it has uncovered during its investigations.

Olukoyede said, “As I am talking to you now, we are grappling with electricity. If you see some of the investigations we are carrying out within the power sector, you will shed tears. People who were awarded contracts to supply electrical equipment, instead of using what they call 9.0 gauge, would go and buy 5.0.

“So every time, you see it tripping off, getting burnt, and all of that. It falters, and it collapses. This is part of our problems.”

Olukoyede also stated that during its investigations, the commission discovered that in the last 20 years, capital project implementation and execution in the country had not exceeded 20 per cent.

He noted that the country could not achieve infrastructural or other forms of growth under such conditions.

Olukoyede said, “We discovered that in the last 15 to 20 years, we have not achieved up to 20% of our capital project implementation and execution. And if we don’t do that, how can we expect infrastructural development? How can we grow as a nation? So our mandate this year is to work with that directorate and with the National Assembly to see if we can reach 50% of capital project execution for the year.

If we achieve 50%, we will be fine as a nation. The lack of implementation of the capital budget is one of Nigeria’s major problems. And if we tackle that effectively, we will make progress as a nation. We are doing everything possible to prevent that, with your support.”

The anti-graft boss stated that the commission had received over 17,000 petitions, adding that over 20,000 cases are currently under investigation.

“We have several cases filed in court, apart from those with convictions, reaching thousands. In the last year, we have received over 17,000 petitions in the EFCC. And currently, as I am speaking, we are investigating over 20,000 cases.

Between last October and now, we have opened over 4,800 new cases. And what is our staff count? We are less than 5,000. Now, with the additional responsibility of over 700 MDAs, 36 states, 774 local governments, and all of that,” he added.

Ekwutosblog gathered that Aloy Ejimakor, the special counsel to Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, on Tuesday, said the North has agreed with the agitator that Nigeria has expired.

Ejimakor was reacting to a remark credited to the spokesman of the Northern Elders Forum, NEF, Ango Abdullahi, that the unity of Nigeria should be renegotiated because the country expired 10 years ago.

In a statement he signed, Ejimakor said the North should apologise to Kanu following Abdullahi’s remark.

According to Ejimakor: “Earlier today (12th November 2024), I noticed that several news outlets quoted the Northern Elders Forum (NEF) and Prof. Ango Abdullahi as having proclaimed that Nigeria “expired” 10 years ago or in 2014. They even added that Nigeria as a nation should, for this reason, be “renegotiated”.

“To me, this landmark proclamation is a significant departure from what was the stance of the North and even the Buhari-led Federal Government when, some years ago, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu made the same proclamation in an epic broadcast on Radio Biafra.

“To be sure, Mazi Kanu’s position then, just as the North has now conceded, was that the legal instrument upon which Nigeria was founded in 1914 has a fixed duration of one hundred years, which expired in 2014.

“It will be recalled that this very broadcast was one of the major reasons Mazi Nnamdi Kanu was then charged with the offence of secession, which was later escalated to incitement of terrorism for which he was renditioned and remains in incarceration for over three years, awaiting some trial.

“So, one might ask: Now that the North has said the same thing for which Mazi Kanu was arrested, renditioned, detained and charged to court, is it not time for the Federal Government and even the North to show some contrition by apologizing to Mazi Nnamdi Kanu or acknowledging that he was right all was right all along?”.