Home - el Khazen Family Prince of Maronites : Lebanese Families Keserwan Lebanon

Factbox-How bad is Lebanon’s economic meltdown?

Details

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Lebanon is suffering an economic meltdown that began in 2019 when the financial system collapsed under colossal state debts and the unsustainable way they were funded, while politicians have yet to come up with a rescue plan.

Just how bad is the situation?

– Gross domestic product has plunged to an estimated $20.5 billion in 2021 from about $55 billion in 2018, the kind of contraction usually associated with wars, the World Bank says, ranking the collapse as one of the worst globally since the mid-19th century.

– The Lebanese pound has lost more than 90% of its value, driving up the cost of almost everything in a country reliant on imports, and demolishing purchasing power. A soldier’s monthly wage, once the equivalent of $900, is now worth about $50.

– Poverty rates are sky-rocketing in the population of about 6.5 million, with around 80% of people classed as poor, the U.N. agency ESCWA says. The situation is worsening. In September, more than half of families had at least one child who skipped a meal, UNICEF has said, compared with just over a third in April.

Lebanese Museum Returns Artifacts From Ancient Palmyra to Syria

Details

By STEVEN GANOT -- themedialine.org -- The Nabu Museum in northern Lebanon returned five Roman antiquities to Syria on Thursday, after they had been on display since 2018. Art collector Jawad Adra had bought the pieces, including limestone statues and carved funerary stones dating back to the second and third centuries CE, from a European auction house before the outbreak of the Syrian war in 2011.

They were among the ruins of the city of Palmyra, one of the most important cultural centers in the ancient world. And while he couldn’t have known it at the time, Adra may have saved the artifacts from destruction; when Palmyra fell under ISIS control, the radical Sunni Islamist group blew up many of its main landmarks and archaeological treasures. Adra spearheaded the return of the artifacts to Syria, a move that Syria’s head of antiquities, Mohamed Nazir Awad, at a handover ceremony organized by the National Museum of Lebanon in Beirut, described as a “gracious initiative.” Syria’s Ambassador to Lebanon Ali Abdel Karim says talks are underway to arrange the return of other artifacts from the National Museum in Beirut to Syria.

Lebanon must not be platform for hostility, Kuwaiti FM says

Details

BEIRUT (Reuters) -Kuwait’s foreign minister said on Sunday Lebanon must not be a platform for hostile acts or words toward Gulf Arab states, an indirect call for curbs on the Iran-backed group Hezbollah in order to improve strained ties. Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Ahmad Nasser al-Mohammad al-Sabah spoke after meeting President Michel Aoun in Beirut, during the first visit https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/lebanons-pm-meet-kuwaiti-foreign-minister-beirut-2022-01-22 to Beirut by a senior Gulf Arab official since a diplomatic rift last year. Sheikh Ahmad said on Saturday he had delivered confidence-building proposals to Prime Minister Najib Mikati, and that his trip was coordinated with Gulf states. “We asked that Lebanon not be a platform for any aggression – verbal or actual,” Sheikh Ahmad said after meeting Aoun. “I presented ideas and thoughts … And we are awaiting a response,” he added.

Diplomatic sources told Reuters that among the 12-point proposals was that Lebanon commits to the 1989 Taif Agreement that ended Lebanon’s civil war, tightens border controls to prevent drug smuggling to the Gulf and steps up security cooperation. The Gulf initiative expressed hope that Beirut will respond by end of the month during a meeting of Arab foreign ministers in Kuwait. Lebanon’s ties have long been strained by the influence of the heavily armed Shi’ite group Hezbollah, and were plunged into a new crisis in October by comments from a former Lebanese minister criticizing Saudi-led forces fighting the Iran-aligned Houthi movement in Yemen. Kuwait was one of several members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), including Saudi Arabia, that responded to George Kordahi’s remarks by expelling the Lebanese ambassador and recalling its envoy to Beirut.

Kuwaiti foreign minister visits Lebanon to mend Gulf standoff

Details

by aljazeera.com -- Gulf Arab states are looking to mend a standoff with Lebanon, Kuwait’s foreign minister said during a visit, the first by a senior Gulf official since the spat erupted last year. “This visit is one of various international efforts to restore trust with Lebanon,” Foreign Minister Sheikh Ahmed Nasser Al Mohammed Al Sabah said on Saturday after talks with Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati at the start of a two-day trip. “We are now taking steps towards building trust … which doesn’t happen overnight,” he told reporters, calling on Lebanese authorities to take “practical and concrete measures” that could bolster ties. The minister said his visit was also to show solidarity with the Lebanese people, and that the move had been coordinated with other Gulf countries.

In October, Saudi Arabia and its allies suspended diplomatic ties with Lebanon after the airing of comments by the then Information Minister Georges Kordahi criticising a Saudi-led military intervention in Yemen. Kuwait recalled its ambassador from Beirut and also asked Beirut’s charge d’affaires to leave the emirate. Lebanon “should avoid interfering in the internal affairs of Arab states generally, but especially in Gulf internal affairs, and it should not be a launching pad for verbal or actual attacks” if it hopes to improve ties, Sheikh Ahmed said. The Kuwaiti official said he handed Mikati and his Lebanese counterpart Abdallah Bouhabib the demands and “now the brothers in Lebanon should study them and know how to deal with these matters and move ahead”. He refused to elaborate on what the demands are.

Hezbollah faces rising dissent, efforts to end Iran's 'occupation' of Lebanon

Details

BEIRUT, Lebanon, By Dalal Saoud - upi.com -- (UPI) -- Lebanon's financial collapse, which has pushed large segments of the population into poverty, has also seen growing anger against the powerful Hezbollah, with more voices openly blaming it for the ongoing crisis and for its allegiance to Iran. Hezbollah's attempts to distinguish itself from the ruling corrupt political class, counting on its reputation as a resistance group that forced the withdrawal of Israeli occupying forces from south Lebanon in 2000 and battled the Islamic State in Syria, are no longer convincing to many, even to once loyal supporters. The group's growing dominance in internal politics, engagement in regional wars and in thwarting the 2019 popular uprising is tarnishing its image as the nation's defender, critics say. With a freezing winter, a continued 22-hour-a-day power cut, lack of diesel fuel and medicines coupled with exorbitant food prices, priorities are shifting to feeding the family, keeping warm, securing medical treatment or simply making ends meet.

U.S. sanctions 3 Lebanese businessmen, tourism company for aiding Hezbollah The poverty rate has nearly doubled -- from 42% in 2019 to 82% in 2021, according to the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia. Over two years, the national currency has lost 90% of its value while the country witnesses a dramatic collapse in basic services, an unemployment surge and closure of businesses. Not spared from the hardship, complaints within Hezbollah's own community are not hidden anymore. "More and more people are expressing their discontent openly," said a Shiite woman, in her 60s from the Baalbeck region, a Hezbollah stronghold in eastern Lebanon with the highest number of the group's fighters killed in the Syria war. "They live day by day and are busy securing the basic things, like bread and diesel fuel."

Lebanese elections: Former PM Hariri in key meetings

Details

By Najia Houssari -- arabnews.com -- BEIRUT: Just four people have submitted their candidacies for Lebanon’s parliamentary elections planned for May since the nomination process opened on Jan. 10. The next house of representatives will elect a new president in October, five months after the parliamentary elections. Some 250,000 Lebanese expats have registered abroad to vote in the upcoming elections to choose 128 MPs. Only one-third of them registered for the previous elections, reflecting enthusiasm for change. Zeina Helou, an expert in local affairs, told Arab News that those who submitted their candidacies belonged to the opposition. Helou said there was a delay in the process because opposition figures had been questioning the possibility of parliamentary elections going ahead. There were further delays due to the electoral law requiring candidates to join electoral lists to qualify as a contestant.

The parliamentary elections are expected to be heated as the Lebanese people are motivated for political upheaval in a system accused of corruption. Candidates are also required to deposit LBP30 million ($19,800), which is far higher than the LBP8 million deposit for previous parliamentary elections. Helou said that things might take shape when registration of the candidates’ lists begins, with the deadline set between Mar. 16 and April 4. Amid the low candidacy numbers, the ruling political forces were still studying the possibility of maintaining their electoral allies, with several alliances broken up as a result of the political crisis.

Lebanon judges to visit Paris over central bank chief probe

Details

Central bank governor Riad Salameh

Beirut (AFP) – A Lebanese judicial delegation will meet French authorities in Paris next week to discuss investigations into Lebanon's central bank governor Riad Salameh, a judicial source said on Thursday. Salameh is among the top Lebanese officials widely blamed for the country's unprecedented financial crisis that the World Bank says is of a scale usually associated with wars. He is the target of a series of judicial investigations in Lebanon, Switzerland and France on suspicion of fraud, money laundering and illicit enrichment, among other allegations. Salameh has repeatedly denied the accusations.

Next week, Jean Tannous, the Lebanese prosecutor leading a local probe into Salameh, and Raja Hamoush, another Lebanese judge, will meet with French authorities, the judicial source told AFP. The visit "will focus on cooperation and exchange of information between the two sides regarding suspicions around Salameh and some of his close associates with regards to... money laundering, illicit enrichment," among other crimes, the judicial source added, without specifying the exact date of the meeting. France had opened a probe into Salameh's personal wealth in May 2021 following a similar move by Switzerland.