by news.un.org — “The explosion at the Beirut port has accelerated a lot of things, that’s for sure”, said Deputy Special Coordinator Najat Rochdi, who is also UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Lebanon, speaking to reporters at the UN in Geneva, referring to the deadly blast last August that killed around 200 and devastated the city. She said necessary political reforms had not been carried out “on time”, despite widespread warnings over the looming economic and financial crisis, that “a lot of analysts had already predicted…We’re not talking about something that takes us by surprise today. I think everyone knew about it”. Between April 2019 and April this year, the consumer Price Index has increased by more than 208 per cent and the price of food and beverages increased by 670 per cent. As a result, over half of the Lebanese population is now living in poverty.

Public services wrecked “The crisis in the economy, the currency devaluation, as well as the governance vacuum has meant a breakdown of public services at a time when they are most needed”, said Ms. Rochdi. She added that “the pandemic has worsened a situation which was already fragile”. The Deputy Special Coordinator said international confidence had been hit by the failure to form a functioning government, deterring investors, and exacerbating the failure of the banking system and other public institutions. Extreme poverty rose threefold during the past two years. More and more Lebanese households are unable to afford basic services like food, health, electricity, water, internet, and child education. “The country is in the middle of a phase of hyperinflation, eroding the value of the national currency, people’s purchasing power and what remains of their trust in their leaders and institutions”, said Ms. Rochdi.

by gulf-times.com — The Commander of the Lebanese Army, General Joseph Aoun, has expressed thanks and gratitude to Qatar, for the valuable assistance and generous support to his country and its citizens, in the wake of the explosion at the Beirut Port. This came during his meeting on Monday with HE Director-General of Qatar Fund […]

By Najia Houssari – arabnews.com — BEIRUT: Public prosecutors in Lebanon have been instructed to crack down on the monopoly on foodstuffs and oil derivatives as political, security and diplomatic concerns grow over explosive daily protests. The spontaneous protests are also demanding access to medicine, fuel, hospitalization and electricity. The Crisis Observatory at the American University of Beirut warned that “the risk of Lebanon falling into the rank of failed states has become a reality after it fell 36 places over five years.” Its rank in 2021 was among the 34 most failed states out of 179 states. The Public Prosecutor at the Court of Cassation, Judge Ghassan Oueidat, on Monday called on public prosecutors in Lebanon to “strictly pursue the monopoly of foodstuffs and oil derivatives, after there has been a lot of refraining from selling these subsidized materials, or selling them at prices that exceed the set price.”

Judge Oueidat said that what is happening “are crimes stipulated by law and must be prosecuted, and shops, warehouses and stations belonging to the suspects must be sealed with red wax.” The judicial procedure came as trade unions and civil bodies prepare for a general strike that begins on Thursday to push for the formation of a government. On Monday, unions of food industries, bakeries, transport workers and taxi drivers announced that they would respond to Thursday’s strike. Bechara Al-Asmar, head of the General Labor Union, told Arab News: “Our move will be escalatory. I don’t know if the strike will last more than a day; we will see what happens Thursday.”

by digitalstudiome.com — The Director’s Fortnight running from 7th-17th July 2021 will showcase the director’s debut film titled The Sea Ahead at the 74th Cannes Film Festival. Ely was previously awarded the Palm D’Or award for Best Short Film at the 68th Cannes Film Festival for his film Waves’98. When in production, The Sea Ahead […]

احد مبارك طالما لم نتوصل الى تشخيص واحد ومنطقي لاسباب الانهيار فلن يمكننا معالجة الوضع  الاقتصادي اطلاقاً ولو شكلت اعظم الحكومات ومن افضل الاختصاصيين او السياسيين المستقلين وغير المستقلين

By Najia Houssari — arabnews.com — BEIRUT: Pharmacies in Lebanon shut their doors on Friday to protest severe supply shortages amid the country’s worst economic and financial crisis for decades. The two-day strike, called over a lack of medicine, gasoline and even infant formula, is the latest sign of Lebanon’s meltdown. Pharmacists, doctors, dentists, nurses and lab scientists took to the streets on Friday to voice their suffering, with people storming the Health Ministry’s interior courtyard and calling for rationalizing subsidies on medicine and a solution to the crisis in the healthcare sector. They urged the World Health Organization not to deal with authorities but instead deal with the Lebanese army and the Lebanese Red Cross. The strike has caused panic in hospitals, which are suffering from medical supply shortages. Fights have been reported between patients and medical staff, with some incidents filmed and posted on social media.

People have even been seen destroying the exterior of emergency departments, while doctors have clashed with patients who refused to postpone their surgeries due to the shortages. Dr. Hadi Mrad blasted the “ongoing corruption of the ruling class” that had violated people’s rights and remained “unpunished, supported and protected” by a corrupt system. “We have never seen something similar,” he told Arab News. “We cannot help our patients. We prescribe them medicine, but the pharmacies are empty. We ask them to run a blood test, but laboratories are not receiving patients due to the shortages in subsidized supplies. We want to admit them, but hospitals have run out of IVs. We get that there is no fuel or flour. But what did patients do to deserve this? What is currently happening is intentional and the authority is determined to kill its citizens.”

By NAJIA HOUSSARI — arabnews.com — BEIRUT: The Supreme Islamic Sharia Council, which represents the Sunni community and its leaders in Lebanon, has renewed its support for Saad Hariri, the prime minister-designate, amid an escalating dispute over the failure to form a government in the country. After a lengthy meeting on Saturday, in which Hariri participated, the council warned that “any quest for new definitions regarding the constitution or the Taif Agreement is not acceptable under any of the arguments.” It was earlier reported that Hariri might announce during the meeting that he was stepping down from the task of establishing a new government entrusted to him by parliament last October. The French initiative and the mediation of Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri so far have failed to help form a government because of an escalating dispute between Hariri and President Michel Aoun, together with his political team represented by his son-in-law Gebran Bassil, head of the Free Patriotic Movement.

The meeting, which was held in Dar Al-Fatwa and attended by former prime ministers, said that the blame for delaying the formation of the government lies with those “who are trying to invent ways and methods that nullify the content of the National Accord Document, which enjoys the consensus of Lebanese leaders who are keen on Lebanon’s independence, unity, sovereignty and pan-Arabism.” During the session, chaired by the grand mufti, Sheikh Abdul Latif Derian, Hariri discussed the obstacles to forming the government and steps he has taken to overcome them. Those present at the meeting expressed their fear that “the suffocating crisis facing Lebanon will deteriorate into an endless abyss amid the indifference and random confusion that characterizes the behavior and actions of leaders who control citizens.”

by arabnews.com — Najia Houssari — BEIRUT: France is organizing a virtual conference next Thursday “to mobilize support from the international community for the Lebanese army,” following an official visit to France from Lebanese Army Commander Gen. Joseph Aoun at the end of May. Aoun met with French President Emmanuel Macron and discussed “providing urgent food and medical aid to the security forces in the hope of maintaining law and order.” The US and Lebanon also held a conference at the end of May, with Washington renewing its commitment to the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) by increasing its its military aid by $15 million, reaching a total of $120 million in the fiscal year 2021. “We have a permanent military aid program with the US, but we do not need weapons right now. We need in-kind aid for the army,” a military source stressed. These developments take place as external warnings continue about the possibility of chaos prevailing in Lebanon, as the economic and social situation hits rock bottom.

Foreign observers fear that security forces may not be able to prevent unrest that may prove more violent than the protests of 2019 and 2020. Political bickering continues, and the caretaker government has refrained from performing any role that its head, Hassan Diab, considers to be in violation of the constitution. A military source told Arab News the political conflicts “affected the morale of the army and other security forces.” However, the source stressed theys had been successful in dealing with protest movements so far. The source added: “It is true that the army is suffering and understands what the people are feeling, but its priority is to protect civil peace and stability; harming civil peace is crossing a red line. “The military institution has no new plan to prevent chaos if it occurs, so it will exercise the role assigned to it.”

By ZEINA KARAM and FADI TAWIL — BEIRUT (AP) — Hospitals in Lebanon warned Thursday they may be forced to suspend kidney dialysis next week due to severe shortages in supplies, the latest in Lebanon’s accelerating crises and collapsing health sector. Lebanon is grappling with an unprecedented economic and financial crisis that has seen the local currency collapse and banks clamp down on withdrawals and money transfers. As the Central Bank’s foreign currency reserves dry up, the country has been witnessing shortages in medicines, fuel and other basic goods, with long lines forming outside petrol stations. The once-thriving health care system has been among the hardest hit, with some hospitals halting elective surgeries, laboratories running out of test kits and doctors warning in recent days that they may even run out of anesthesia for operations. On Thursday, doctors said they may be forced to suspend kidney dialysis next, blaming shortages on a dispute between medical importers and the Central Bank over subsidies. “It is a crime against humanity,” said George Ghanem, chief medical officer at the Lebanese American University Medical Center – Rizk Hospital, reading a statement on behalf of the doctors. “The hospitals and medical sector cannot continue this way. We are approaching very difficult days where we will no longer be able to receive patients,” he added.

Ghanem appeal to the United Nations and the World Health Organization, urging them to step in by sending aid directly to hospitals or the Red Cross, bypassing the Lebanese government and Central Bank. “Otherwise there are patients tomorrow who will not have their dialysis, patients who will not be diagnosed, and patients who will not be operated on,” he said. Already, there were 350 brands of basic medications that were in short supply, he added. The crisis in Lebanon, which is rooted in decades of corruption and mismanagement by an entrenched political class, has driven more than half of the population into poverty, caused the local currency to lose more than 85% of its value. The World Bank on Tuesday said Lebanon’s crisis is one of the worst the world has seen in the past 150 years. The crisis has worsened considerably because of politicians’ inability to agree on a new government amid colossal challenges the country faces. The Cabinet of outgoing Prime Minister Hassan Diab resigned days after a massive explosion at Beirut’s port last August, and the country has been without a fully functioning government since. Locked in a power struggle, Lebanon’s President Michel Aoun and prime minister-designate Saad Hariri continue to trade blame as the country sinks deeper into crises that every day become more intractable.

لقاء الجمهورية:
نبه “لقاء الجمهورية” في بيان بعد اجتماعه الدوري عبر تطبيق “زوم” من الافراط في الشعبوية على حساب المنطق، ما يضاعف الضرر وخيبات الأمل، مؤكداً ان الحلول موجودة دائماً لكن الارادة غير حاضرة، تنتظر مصلحة من هنا وحصة من هناك.
وسأل: ماذا يُمكن ان يفعل الوزير المسيحي الاضافي لانقاذ لبنان حتى يستفحل الخلاف على مرجعية تسميته، ويؤخر تشكيل الحكومة، على الرغم بتسليم الغالبية ان الحكومة بأكملها غير قادرة على تقديم الاصلاح المطلوب في غياب السيادة الناجزة وفي عدم اعتماد سياسة خارجية محايدة تسهر على ترميم علاقات لبنان بالمجتمعين العربي والدولي.
وتوجه “اللقاء” بالشكر للدول الداعمة للجيش وفي طليعتها الولايات المتحدة الأميركية وفرنسا، مؤكداً ان الدعم الأكبر للمؤسسة العسكرية التي تشكل العمود الفقري للدولة، يأتي من خلال العمل على حصر السلاح بيد الجيش.