by naharnet — Al-Mustaqbal Movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri lashed out Friday at Prime Minister Hassan Diab and the rival political parties, accusing them of seeking revenge against “an entire era” while attempting to destroy “the free economic system.” In a strongly-worded statement responding to Diab’s speech earlier in the day, Hariri accused the PM of delivering an “uncalculated” address and declaring a “coup” with a “military language.” “These are dangerous remarks seeking to manipulate people’s sentiments and their social concerns and fear for their livelihood with the aim of distancing himself from the government’s blatant dereliction,” Hariri charged. “This is the phase of revenge against an entire era and they have tasked the premiership with leading the attack,” the ex-PM said. He added: “Bravo, Hassan Diab. You did a good job. Here you are fulfilling their dreams in destroying the free economic system. They are clapping for you at the (presidential) palace.” “How can you ignore the party responsible for half of the public debt through subsidizing electricity and seven years of paralyzing state institutions? How can you not ask about the policies that harmed Lebanon’s Arab and international ties? How can you disregard the responsibilities that should be borne by those practicing a new tutelage over the premiership? Is the central bank governor to blame for all of this?” Hariri asked, addressing Diab.

In his speech, Diab said he is holding Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh responsible for the downward spiral of the national currency, accusing him of pursuing “opaque” policies that sent the pound crashing against the dollar. The government has agreed with Lebanon’s president to hire an independent international auditing company to review the Central Bank’s performance, Diab said. The move, and the premier’s speech, were an indication of a widening rift with the country’s longtime chief financial decision-maker. Diab urged Salameh to speak openly to the public about the financial crisis, hinting that the governor has intentionally engineered the crash of the pound.

BEIRUT: Ziad Abdallah has watched with growing alarm as Lebanon’s financial meltdown has threatened the savings he spent 25 years building up in his dollar account. First his Lebanese bank reduced dollar withdrawals, then it stopped them entirely. Now the central bank has issued rules saying any withdrawals must be in the collapsing Lebanese pound at a rate likely to mean he will face a loss. “This is appropriation of wealth,” said the shop owner who returned to Lebanon from abroad after the 1975-90 civil war, joining a call to rebuild a nation that had long prided itself on offering banking stability even in the most turbulent times. This cornerstone of Lebanon’s economy has now been shaken to its core, as long-brewing economic troubles and the country’s mounting national debt spilled over into a full-blown banking crisis even before the coronavirus outbreak added a fresh blow.

Lebanon’s fixed exchange rate has been a major casualty. The Lebanese pound has been pegged at 1,500 to the dollar since 1997, a guarantee that meant pounds and dollars were both widely used. It gave Lebanon’s diaspora the confidence to repatriate capital, building deposits that helped finance the state. The official peg remains for some essential goods, but the currency has plunged to about 3,500 on the unofficial market. From this month, banks began allowing small depositors to cash out dollar savings, but at a rate of 2,600 pounds.

by gulftoday.ae — Lebanon has detained a man over the killing of 10 people including his wife, two brothers and two Syrian children, a judicial source said on Thursday, in a crime that shocked the country. The case has stirred public opinion since the discovery on Tuesday of the first nine bodies near the village […]

by aawsat.com — Lebanon’s government needs to enact a rescue plan that rebuilds confidence in the economy and tackles root causes behind the country’s financial crisis, a senior International Monetary Fund official said in comments published on Wednesday. “The priority for the IMF is the need for the government to approve a rescue plan that […]

by arabnews.com — NAJIA HOUSSARI — BEIRUT: The Lebanese Parliament convened for the third time this week on Wednesday as dozens of protestors again took to the streets in their cars to raise their concerns about rising poverty and hardships amid the COVID-19 lockdown. Parliament dropped the expedited status of a proposed law to waive the immunity of presidents and ministers and returned it to parliamentary committees “for further study, to secure the independence of the judiciary and its constitutional right to trial.” Parliament also rejected a bill proposing that — in line with demands of protestors for the past six months — the current parliamentary term be shortened and elections held as soon as possible, and another bill proposing the suspension of public works in order to focus on the construction of the Bisri Dam. The dam has been strongly opposed by the civil movement, residents of mountainous areas, and environmental activists. Parliament did approve a proposed law put forward by MP Paula Yacoubian to ban pictures and posters of political leaders, officials, and employees in public places. Prime Minister Hassan Diab announced his approval of this move, while Progressive Socialist Party bloc MP Hadi Abou Hassan said, “It is implementation that matters.”

Independent MP Michel Moawad suggested that the law should also apply to “posters of religious figures and party flags,” referring to Hezbollah. A number of MPs attempted to address Lebanon’s ongoing economic and social crisis, which has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. They warned of possible civic unrest and of the possibility of a greater collapse of the Lebanese lira against the dollar. A number of MPs also enquired about the fate of misappropriated funds. Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri responded that the government “has completed its promised economic plan, and Parliament will soon discuss it.” After the legislative session, Diab said the government’s reform plan would be discussed next week.

The civil movement continued its car-bound protests for the second day in succession — obeying the social-distancing guidelines — but protestors were unable to get close to where the legislative session was held. The Ministry of Health reported five new COVID-19 cases, including two in Rayak in the Bekaa Valley, which brought the total number of cases in Lebanon to 682. One patient from Dinniyeh in northern Lebanon with underlying health issues died bringing the number of COVID-19-related deaths to 22.

by AP — BEIRUT: A gunman shot dead nine people Tuesday, including five Syrians, and left their bodies in several locations in a mountain village southeast of the capital Beirut, the prime minister and state news and said. A motive for the killings was not immediately known, said the state-run National News Agency. It said […]

by thenational.ae — Sunniva Rose — Protests resumed across Lebanon on Tuesday despite confinement measures, as legislators met for a three-day session. Demonstrators and parliamentarians obeyed social-distancing rules as Parliament met for the first time since anti-government demonstrations swept the country last October. Protesters wearing gloves and masks drove in convoys around Beirut and MPs moved to a huge theatre called the Unesco Palace to let members sit further apart. These were the first protests in Beirut since confinement measures were imposed, despite sporadic demonstrations outside the capital in the past weeks as Lebanon’s financial crisis worsens. “People are very angry,” said Dania, a protester who was driving in Beirut’s convoy of about 50 cars, waving a Lebanese flag through her sunroof. “All of us, the poor and the rich, have lost half of our fortune.”

The value of the local currency has plummeted from the official rate of 1,507.5 to 3,250 against the US dollar on the grey market. Signs of a cash crunch appeared last summer and Lebanon defaulted on its foreign debt for the first time, in early March. “We want to make a statement to tell the government and political parties that we are here and we are coming back,” said Khodor Eido, who lost his job as a chef after restaurants closed last month over fears of Covid-19. “MPs have been on a paid vacation and are not looking after their people. “Prices of products in supermarkets are going up by 60 to 70 per cent and the economy minister says it’s normal because the rate of the dollar is increasing fast.” Protesters said they would keep demonstrating until Thursday, despite recent government efforts to restrict traffic by introducing a system that allows cars on the road only every other day.

by NAJIA HOUSSARI — arabnews.com —BEIRUT: Protesters in Lebanon have defied curfews and lockdowns and taken to the streets again — some demanding permission to reopen their shuttered businesses, others complaining that the pandemic had worsened their already-desperate financial plight. Barbers and other shop owners held a sit-in in Tripoli, asking the government to allow […]

by alaraby.co.uk — Joe Macaron — The Trump Administration quietly pulled a political and legal coup in Beirut in the short period between the Lebanese government’s declaration of a health state of emergency on March 15 and its banning of all flights on March 19 due to the coronavirus outbreak in the country. After six months of detention in Lebanon, the Lebanese-American citizen Amer Fakhoury was released and evacuated from Lebanon in a quasi-clandestine operation, one that reflected the leverage Washington has in Beirut and the vulnerabilities of a Lebanese government struggling for political and financial survival. Dubbed “the butcher of Khiam” by Lebanese media, Fakhoury was arrested as he arrived at Rafic Hariri International Airport in Beirut in September 2019. The General Directorate of General Security issued a statement on September 13 noting that during his interrogation, Fakhoury confessed to collaborating with the Israeli army and that he was subsequently referred to the Lebanese military’s office of the public prosecutor. Fakhoury, 57, was a senior warden in the infamous Khiam prison in south Lebanon that was run by the so-called South Lebanon Army, a militia group of Lebanese soldiers who had defected and then collaborated with Israel after its 1982 invasion of Lebanon. In 1985, the Israeli army turned the former Khiam military base into a prison camp that detained and tortured Lebanese who defied the Israeli occupation. Just before Israeli forces withdrew from Lebanon in 2000, Fakhoury fled to Israel then immigrated to the United States. He now holds both US and Israeli passports.

The controversy after Fakhoury’s arrest revolved around who removed his name from the blacklist of those convicted in Lebanese courts for collaborating with Israel, a list that is typically disseminated to all border entry points. It appears that his conviction in absentia in 1998 for 15 years of hard labor in prison was rescinded. Fakhoury’s family claims that Lebanese authorities “signed off” on his travel to Beirut. The most likely scenario might have been that high-level Lebanese officials were aware and played a role in removing Fakhoury’s conviction and arrest warrant from his criminal record to facilitate his visit. However, things went wrong the moment he landed in Beirut.

This is an opinion article and may not necessarily represent khazen.org views 

by thearabweekly.com — Khairallah Khairallah — The Lebanese only want to know one thing: When will banks release their hold on people’s deposits? It’s not just a question of freeing Lebanese and Arab deposits, but also of playing with the country’s fate. Of course everybody is now busy with the COVID-19 pandemic, but the Lebanese are also worried about the future of their country, not knowing if it can survive if its banking system collapses. It is no secret that Lebanon is a bank. It is primarily thanks to this role, in addition to its other roles since before independence in 1943, that the country has remained steadfast in spite of the ongoing war since 1975. What has enabled Lebanon to survive is its banking system and its continued efforts to protect a vibrant culture of life over the culture of death advocated by Hezbollah, and before it by Christian and Islamic militias and Palestinian factions. They all played a role in the destruction of Beirut, which the Syrian regime was able to fully exploit for a long time. Despite many trials and tribulations over the past 45 years, Lebanon has always kept the foundations of life in the country. Among these foundations are Beirut’s port and airport. Beirut itself was vibrant with life, with all of its newspapers, magazines, cultural life, cafes, hotels, restaurants and nightclubs. It was a city that loved life and people loved to live in it.

On the margins of the crisis of Lebanon’s banking sector, which is crucial to the country’s survival, there is one remark that must be made. It concerns the role of certain Christian groups in bringing the political situation in Lebanon to where it is now, that is to say, to having a “Hezbollah government” in place during this “Hezbollah era.” The original sin of Lebanese Christians is not just the acceptance by some of their senior leaders, including former President Camille Chamoun and Sheikh Pierre Gemayel, of the Cairo Agreement in 1969, but, to a greater degree, their acceptance of the election of Suleiman Franjieh as president in 1970, less than a year after the Cairo Agreement. No one doubts Franjieh’s patriotism and intimate sense of Lebanese identity, but 1970 was one of the most dangerous years in the Middle East. Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser died that year, and Hafez Assad fomented a coup against his Baathist comrades as he prepared to become the first Alevi to take over the Syrian presidency in February 1971. In 1970, Jordanian King Hussein managed to preserve his throne and expel Palestinian fighters from the country. Miraculously, these fighters ended up in Lebanon at a time when the country was, more than ever, in need of political leadership that could understand the developments taking place in the region.