khazen.org stands by Our Maronite His Beatitude Cardinal Patriarch Rai and offers all its support! 

BEIRUT (Reuters) By Matilda Colman – Hundreds of Lebanese gathered at the seat of the Maronite church on Saturday to support calls by its leader for the country to be neutral in regional conflicts as a way to lead it out of political and economic crisis. Lebanon has been in financial meltdown since 2019 and feuding politicians have been unable to form a government since the last one quit in the aftermath of an Aug. 4 explosion in the capital, leaving the country rudderless. Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros Al-Rai has repeatedly urged political rivals to agree a new administration, and recently called for a U.N.-sponsored international conference to help break the deadlock. “You came from all over Lebanon … to support two things: neutrality and an international conference for Lebanon under the auspices of the United Nations. In one word you came here to save Lebanon,” Rai, who is Lebanon’s most senior Christian cleric, told the crowd at the church’s seat in Bkirki. “Through an international conference we want to announce the neutrality of Lebanon so that it does not return to become a victim of conflicts and wars and divisions,” he said. “There are no two states in one land and no two armies in one state.”

Rai did not specifically refer to the Iranian-backed Hezbollah, but several people in the crowd shouted “Iran, get out” in reference to the Shi’ite group. Heavily armed Hezbollah has supported Iran in its power struggle with Sunni-led Arab Gulf states in the region. Opponents of the group say its alliance with Tehran has led Gulf Arabs – who once supported Lebanon – to steer clear, closing off an important source of aid. Prime Minister-designate Saad al-Hariri was given the task of forming a government in October but is struggling to cobble together a cabinet to share power with all Lebanese parties, including Hezbollah. Hariri said earlier in February there was no way out of the crisis without the support of Arab countries.

By Emily DeCiccio — cnbc — The Saudi crown prince’s actions in the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi might have left the kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund vulnerable to consequences, according to a former leading diplomat in the Obama administration. The Biden administration on Friday released a previously classified intelligence report that assessed Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia approved the plan to assassinate Khashoggi in 2018. The Saudi sovereign wealth fund, known as the Public Investment Fund, is chaired by MBS. It appears to have played a role in purchasing the aircraft that ferried Khashoggi’s killers to Turkey, where the murder occurred. “If this is the case, it could become a target for American human rights sanctions,” according to Joel Rubin, a former deputy assistant secretary of State. That could, in turn, “create an economic earthquake,” he said. “If the United States determines that the Khashoggi killing was a targeted human rights violation, then the perpetrators and backers of that killing could be sanctioned under the Magnitsky Act,” Rubin said.

The Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act authorizes the president to impose economic sanctions, freeze any U.S. assets, and deny entry into the U.S. to any foreign person who has engaged in human rights abuse or corruption, while prohibiting Americans from doing business with him or her. The Magnitsky Act has been used against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s cronies. Putin called it, “A purely political, unfriendly act.” Shortly after the release of Friday’s intelligence report, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced that the U.S. banned 76 people from Saudi Arabia. He called it the “Khashoggi Ban.” Blinken added that the U.S. will not tolerate individuals who threaten or assault activists, dissidents and journalists on behalf of foreign governments. There was, however, no direct action taken against MBS. The Saudi government rejected the findings of the U.S. report. Sovereign wealth funds are prevalent among oil-rich countries. They provide a haven where countries can stockpile significant wealth, and store that money in a self-controlled coffer.

by egyptindependent.com — An airplane loaded with medical and food supplies from Egypt was sent to the Lebanese army on Thursday as part of ongoing relief efforts. Upon the plane’s arrival, the Lebanese Minister of Defense Zeina Aker thanked Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi and the Egyptian army for the support. She noted that the […]

By CALINE MALEK — arabnews.com — DUBAI: No good deed goes unpunished, it is said. But thanks to one Beirut philanthropist, some good deeds end up being not only rewarded but also recorded. The World Sucks (TWS) — a Lebanese social video channel devoted to documenting acts of kindness — was created just over a year ago to motivate the beneficiaries to pay it forward and give back to the community. “As much as you try to help, you will never be able to solve all the problems,” the founder of TWS, who prefers to remain anonymous, told Arab News. “But a way to get close to that goal was to make videos to motivate people to either pay for someone’s food or offer them a free ride.” In one of the channel’s earliest videos, the founder begs local cab drivers for a free ride, claiming to have no money. As a reward for their kindness, drivers who took pity on the “penniless” passenger were handed a large sum of cash — and their pleasant surprise caught on camera. “It was really fun,” he said, recalling the adrenaline rush of that first encounter. “I couldn’t sleep all night thinking about what happened.”

The first six videos were paid for out of the founder’s own pocket. But as the channel’s popularity grew, clocking up at least 31,600 Instagram followers and 5,200 YouTube subscribers, donations soon began flooding in, allowing TWS to go bigger and bolder. “We always try to find different people to surprise, sometimes taxi drivers, sometimes cart vendors or random people,” the founder said. “We then shifted to target hard-working or under-appreciated individuals, because times got really tough in Lebanon with the financial situation and the lockdowns due to the coronavirus pandemic.”

By TAREK ALI AHMAD — arabnews.com — LONDON: Lebanese MP and deputy speaker Elie Ferzli has clashed with the media with three explosive televised appearances that saw him insult journalists, leave midway through an interview and claim his word is the constitution on Wednesday. Ferzli’s rampant and aggressive behaviour — in a press conference, on DW, and then on LBCI — comes after he and 10 other lawmakers jumped the queue and received the first shot of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine the day before. Faced with mounting pressure to explain the jump, Ferzli figured that the best way to defend his actions was by insulting journalist and presenter Malek Maktabi on his show “Ahmar bil Khat al Areed” on LBCI after Maktabi asked Ferzli a simple question on his eligibility to take the COVID-19 vaccine.

“I wasn’t simply bothered by the way he was talking and from the tone in which he was talking to me, he insulted me, but I tried to stay calm as much as I can because at the end of the day he is my guest,” Maktabi told Arab News. “I wanted to get back to my question, I was keen on getting that answer, I did my homework, I knew exactly what my first question was going to be and how I was going to proceed with the interview. So if he doesn’t answer my first question, I won’t be able to get what I want out of the interview.” Ferzli went on to tell Maktabi: “Don’t you dare say you are not sure when you speak to me,” adding: “My words are the constitution.” Earlier, Ferzli walked out of a live interview with Ahmed Abida on the arabic version of Deutsche Welle TV, DW Arabic. “You are speaking with the wrong guy,” Ferzli remarked, adding: “I do not need to beg you to speak.”

by naharnet.com — Caretaker Health Minister Hamad Hassan broke his silence Wednesday evening over the controversy sparked by the vaccination of around two dozen MPs and parliament employees in apparent disregard for the national queue and the country’s electronic registration platform. Speaking in an interview with state-run Tele Liban, Hassan said he took a “sovereign decision” by asking medical teams to head to parliament to vaccinate the lawmakers “in appreciation of their efforts, after parliament convened for seven consecutive days to approve the vaccine’s emergency use law.” “There is a mobile clinic at the Health Ministry which will move between state institutions… and I will also visit the religious authorities to give them the vaccine the same as I gave it to MPs,” the minister added.

Noting that the age range of the MPs who received the vaccine was “not against logic,” Hassan described the uproar over the issue as “exaggerated” and “out of proportion.” He added: “The ministerial (anti-Covid) committee has jurisdiction and the head of the vaccine national committee Abdul Rahman al-Bizri is part of a consultative committee but the ministerial committee is the one that takes decisions.” As for the vaccines received by President Michel Aoun, First Lady Nadia Aoun and at least 10 of the president’s aides, Hassan said: “The vaccine received by President Michel Aoun is the same vaccine received by citizens in the Bekaa, Akkar, Beirut, the South and all Lebanese regions. This is justice.” The World Bank had threatened Tuesday to suspend financing for coronavirus vaccines in Lebanon over what it said were suspected violations by lawmakers who were inoculated in parliament.

by arabnews.com — LONDON: Britons and Lebanese are enduring some of the strictest lockdown conditions in the world, an analysis by Oxford University has found. Only Eritrea’s and Venezuela’s lockdowns are stricter, according to a tracker compiled by Oxford’s Blavatnik School of Government. Lebanon’s lockdown policies are marginally tougher than Britain’s. The analysis, which looked […]

By By Ben Hubbard — nytimes.com — BEIRUT, Lebanon — The Covid-19 vaccination drive in Lebanon erupted in scandal on Tuesday when 16 lawmakers received shots inside the parliament building, violating regulations aimed at keeping the process fair and transparent. The vaccination program, financed by $34 million from the World Bank, began earlier this month when the country received its first doses. To try to ensure accountability in a country known for corner-cutting and corruption, the government is requiring citizens to register for vaccination through an online portal. Medical workers and people over 75 are supposed to get the shots first, administered in official vaccination centers. On Tuesday, Adnan Daher, the parliamentary secretary, confirmed to reporters that 16 lawmakers had received shots. He said the lawmakers were all of the proper age and their turn to be vaccinated had come. But according to lists compiled by local news outlets, about half were younger than 75.

Elie Ferzli, a lawmaker in his early 70s who got the shot on Tuesday, denied in a telephone interview that he had jumped the line, and said he was “shocked” by the public outrage over the shots. “I have meetings every day in the parliament, so how am I supposed to keep doing my job normally and helping people?” he said. Officials overseeing the vaccination program, though, cried foul. Dr. Abdul Rahman Bizri, the head of Lebanon’s vaccine committee, threatened to resign over what he condemned as “a violation we cannot stay silent about,” but he decided to stay on. Saroj Kumar Jha, the World Bank’s director for the region that includes Lebanon, wrote on Twitter before the reports were confirmed that letting lawmakers jump the line was “not in line with the national plan,” and added, “Everyone has to register and wait for their turn!” He said that if the rules were broken, the World Bank could suspend its support for the vaccination program and Lebanon’s Covid-19 response generally. A World Bank spokeswoman did not respond to a query on Tuesday about how the bank would handle the incident.

Beirut (AsiaNews) – The call for a UN-sponsored international conference to get Lebanon out of its current constitutional crisis, issued by the head of the Maronite Church, Cardinal Beshara Al-Rahi last summer, is gaining traction at home and abroad. It received indirect support from Saudi Arabia yesterday. Back in Lebanon after a noticeable absence of two months, seen by Lebanese political circles as a sign of Saudi “disinterestedness” of the fate of Lebanon, the Saudi ambassador to Lebanon, Walid Boukhari, is actively working to renew talks with Lebanese political leaders, from which the Prime Minister-designate, Saad Hariri, is still excluded for now. At the Patriarchal See in Bkerké, which he visited last Friday, the Saudi ambassador renewed his country’s support for Lebanon’s national unity, civil peace and the Taif Accords. “The national and international community are paying attention to the views expressed by the Patriarch on national issues,” the ambassador said before stressing “the need for the proper application of the Taif agreement (1989) guaranteeing ‘national unity and civil peace in Lebanon’.” “The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia wants Lebanon to regain its former glory and its pioneering role,” Boukhari explained, “and will always remain the closest friend of the Lebanese people and their constitutional institutions.” The “country’s political memory is evidence that the Lebanese people never tire of fighting for the preservation of their living together in unity.”

Saudi Arabia has accused the prime minister-designate of complacency towards Hezbollah, and has joined the United States in demanding that this party be excluded from the new “mission government” demanded by President Emmanuel Macron, in exchange for structural economic aid to prevent the country’s economic collapse. Since late 2019, the Lebanese pound has lost 80 percent of its purchasing power. For his part, the Patriarch assured the diplomat of his attachment to the Taif agreements and to internal peace, informed sources close to Bkerké said. What is more, his call for an international conference to resolve Lebanon’s crisis, under the aegis of the UN, is peaceful in nature. In a recent homily, the head of the Maronite Church said that an international conference sponsored by the UN is now essential to “save” Lebanon and prevent it “from sinking into obscurantism and capitulating to transnational projects contrary to the essence of Lebanon,” a clear reference to extremist ideologies professed by certain Islamist groups.

BY THE MARITIME EXECUTIVE — — Judge Fadi Sawan, who has led the investigation into the cause of the massive blast at the Port of Beirut last August, has been removed from the case after two former ministers complained of bias. He has been replaced by Tarek Bitar, the head of Beirut’s criminal court, effective Friday. The devastating explosion was caused by a cargo of 2,750 tonnes of explosives-grade ammonium nitrate, which had arrived in Beirut in 2013 aboard the freighter Rhosus. When the owner abandoned the vessel over unpaid port fees, Lebanese officials offloaded the cargo and left it in a minimally-guarded warehouse, adjacent to a cache of fireworks. On August 4, it caught fire and detonated, killing 204 people and injuring another 7,500. The blast ranked among the largest non-nuclear explosions in history, and it destroyed a substantial segment of Beirut’s waterfront.

Among the three dozen individuals that Sawan charged in the investigation were former finance minister Ali Hassan Khalil; former public works minister Ghazi Zeaiter; a second former public works minister, Youssef Finianos; and current caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab. In response, Khalil and Zeaiter filed a formal complaint alleging that Sawan was pursuing political figures in order to satisfy public demands. The court overseeing the case dismissed Sawan last week, finding that he could not be a neutral party because he refused to recognize Khalil and Zeaiter’s broad claims of legal immunity – and because his own house was damaged in the explosion. Sawan’s replacement, Tarek Bitar, has served as the head of Beirut’s criminal court for the past four years. He was first asked to head the explosion inquiry in August, before Sawan was selected; however, he initially turned it down because of the obligations of his existing role, according to L’Orient Today.