Joseph A. Kechichian, Senior Writer

Beirut: “The state has failed in handling the garbage management file which had turned into a Mexican soap opera and a national and health disaster burdening the Lebanese,” Phalange Party leader Sami Gemayel declared after yet another national dialogue session that brought under the same roof political elites that loathed each other, visible for one and all to see on a more or less regular basis.

The 15th dialogue session, which included the Marada Movement leader Sulaiman Franjieh — who stepped out early to visit former Prime Minister Saad Hariri — but not Progressive Socialist Party’s Walid Jumblatt nor the Free Patriotic Movement’s Michel Aoun — was devoted to the garbage crisis that lingered since July 17, 2015 when the Naameh landfill was closed. Many Lebanese wondered where else would leaders hold “national dialogues” to discuss garbage.

ABC news

Saudi Arabia announced on Friday it is halting deals worth $4 billion aimed at equipping and supporting Lebanese security forces in retaliation for the tiny country’s siding with Iran amid the Sunni kingdom’s spat with the Shiite power.

The surprise announcement, carried by the state-run Saudi Press Agency, comes as deeply divided Lebanon struggles to handle the fallout from neighboring Syria’s raging civil war. The Lebanese government declined to immediately comment on the Saudi decision.

One deal involves a four-year, $3 billion Saudi pledge to buy French arms for the Lebanese military, which already has seen the Mediterranean country receive modern anti-tank guided Milan missiles last year. The other involves a $1 billion support deal for the Lebanese police.

by Vanessa Newby

And so the painfully slow process of agreeing on a new president for Lebanon continues.  A breakthrough — of sorts —  was reported last month when candidate Samir Geagea announced he was pulling out of the race and would endorse his rival, Michel Aoun, potentially arresting Christian indecision over which candidate to support.  However in November last year, Sa’ad Hariri, Geagea’s longstanding ally in the Sunni-Christian political alliance — the March 14th bloc —  announced he was nominating  alternative Christian candidate Suleiman Franjieh. This has triggered another stand-off and there remain two candidates to choose from: Aoun or Franjieh.

Under Lebanese constitutional law, the president of the country must be a Christian, the prime minister a Sunni Muslim and the speaker of the house a Shi’ite Muslim.  The role of speaker has long been occupied by Amal leader Nabih Berri, and, owing to the strength of the Shi’a dominated ‘March 8th‘ alliance (Amal and Hizbullah). this has never been challenged.  Currently Tamam Salam is acting as interim prime minister as a compromise candidate but he wields little influence.  A parliamentary vote is necessary to elect the new president and that is scheduled for 2 March.  The March 8th alliance has demanded agreement on a candidate from all sides before the vote and, in the absence of this, has boycotted earlier attempts to hold the vote that requires the presence of 86 lawmakers to be valid.

Michael Karam

The Lebanese tourism ministry has just released visitor figures for 2015. It appears that despite ongoing security concerns, nearly 2 million Syrians pushing Lebanon’s infrastructure to breaking point and an ongoing environmental emergency, we welcomed 1,517,927 visitors last year, an increase of more than 10 per cent on 2014.

But I’m not convinced that our tourist industry is doing that well. It is widely known that business travellers are included in the numbers, as are the hundreds of thousands of Lebanese who carry foreign passports and who may be coming here for reasons other than relaxation or sightseeing. I also imagine that many of those Iraqis who we are told make up the biggest number of Arab visitors are en route to a better life in Europe.

Samir Moqbel Lebanese Defense Minister AP, Lebanon’s defense minister is urging the European Union to speed up assistance for the huge number of refugees from war-ravaged Syria that his country is now harboring. Samir Moqbel says he has appealed to Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades to convey the message to other EU member states to speed […]

Joseph A. Kechichian, Senior Writer

Beirut: For the 11th year running, thousands gathered to commemorate the assassination of Rafik Hariri, on Valentine’s Day in 2005. Hundreds of thousands watched on television screens though only MTV, Al-Jadeed, Future Television and LBC carried the commemoration live. OTV, TeleLiban, NBN and Al-Manar broadcast regularly scheduled programmes.

Speaking at the Biel Conference Centre, the fallen martyr’s son, former prime minister Sa’ad Hariri reiterated his commitment to his father’s memory. He repeated that no one stood above the state.

Reuters

2005

February 14: Former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri is killed, along with 22 others, by a huge truck bomb in Beirut, triggering international pressure on neighboring Syria to end a 29-year military presence in Lebanon.

April 26: Last Syrian soldiers leave Lebanon.

June 16: An international investigation into Hariri’s killing begins.

June 19: Lebanese parliamentary elections end in victory for anti-Syrian alliance led by Hariri’s son Sa’ad Hariri.

October 20: In a report to the UN Security Council, the preliminary findings of the international investigation implicate high-ranking Syrian and Lebanese officials in the Hariri killing. Syria denies any role.

Halim Shebaya

I recall time stopped at noon on the 14th of February 2005. I was driving down to Hamra when I saw two friends, one of whom incidentally worked for Solidere, the company founded by Rafik Hariri to rebuild downtown Beirut. Due to Lebanon’s lax traffic rules, we stopped at the side of the highway and agreed to have lunch in Bliss Street.

Marwan went to his office in Biel while I drove towards the American University of Beirut, along the same road Rafik Hariri took as he left Parliament Square and drove towards his mansion in Qraytem. I was less than 100 meters ahead of his convoy when the blast rocked Lebanon’s coast.

The hours following the attack remain vivid in my mind. I remember the initial fear that Marwan and Joseph were caught up in the blast. They had the same fear for my safety. We all barely escaped. Thoughts then turned to all my friends and family members who took the Saint George coastal road to work or to university.

Peter Feely, Special to Guides

Beirut was chosen to be among the New 7 Wonders of Cities on 2014

Beirut’s often in the headlines for the wrong reasons. From refuge collection to refugee crises, the former Paris of the Middle East is usually portrayed as politically divided and chaotic. Art and culture however remain integral to life in the fervid Lebanese capital. Multi-million dollar redevelopments have seen galleries popping up across the city and last October’s re-opening of the iconic Sursock Museum indicate that the artistic heart and soul of Beirut refuses to be curtailed by political infighting and adversity. Here are five reasons why Beirut hasn’t relinquished its cultural mojo.

Joseph A. Kechichian, Senior Writer

Beirut: As the 17-member International Syria Support Group (ISSG) meeting in Munich agreed on a putative plan to usher in a ceasefire in Syria next week, Prime Minister Tammam Salam met with the UN special envoy Staffan de Mistura to discuss how best to protect Lebanon.

Salam, who is in Germany to attend the three-day Munich Security Conference (MSC) that has gathered senior officials from around the world, wanted to know whether the just agreed upon deal included provisions to look after the estimated 1.5 million Syrian refugees in Lebanon. The affable prime minister faced this conundrum a week ago in London when a donors conference raised the question indirectly, although he expressed some satisfaction that no senior official spoke of “naturalising the refugees”.