by middle-east-online.com — NIHA – In a village in Lebanon’s scenic Chouf Mountains, 69-year-old Chafik Mershad pulls out a massive rectangular guestbook and reads out despairingly the date when he hosted his last visitor: November 16, 2019. A month earlier, anti-government protests had exploded across the country over taxes and a deteriorating currency crisis. Amid such uncertainty, few people visited his guesthouse. Then came the coronavirus and subsequent government-imposed lockdowns. The guesthouse officially closed its doors in February 2020. A year and a half later, he still has no plans to reopen amid the country’s current financial meltdown. “Corona really affected us, but the biggest thing was the currency crisis,” Mershad said, speaking at his home above the guesthouse. “We used to offer meals for guests with Nescafe, tea, whatever they wanted for a cheap price. Now, one hamburger patty costs that much.”

The dual shocks of the pandemic and a devastating financial crisis have gutted the hospitality sector of this Mediterranean nation, known for its beaches, mountain resorts and good food. Hundreds of businesses, including guesthouses like the Mershad Guesthouse, have been forced to close. But as pandemic restrictions are being eased, the businesses that survived hope the dollars spent by visiting Lebanese expats and an increase in domestic tourism can get the wheels of the economy moving again. Currently, most hotel reservations are from Lebanese expats and some foreigners from neighboring Iraq, Egypt and Jordan. Airport arrivals are picking up: Every day for the past several weeks, the Beirut Airport has had four flights coming from Iraq, with more than 700 passengers in total, according to Jean Abboud, president of the Travel and Tourist Agents Union. Chaotic scenes have been reported at the arrivals lounge as people crowd for the obligatory PCR test.

By NAJIA HOUSSARI — arabnews.com — BEIRUT: Doctors and pharmacists raised their voices on Monday in protest against the lack of medicine amid the deteriorating Lebanese currency crisis. In a growing spate of crises, shortages of fuel and medicine continued over the weekend. These materials, as well as the food supply, are imported. Food prices have soared. The price of sunflower oil has jumped by over 1,100 percent since the summer of 2019. The price of beef and rice has risen by 627 percent and 545 percent respectively over the same period. The price of eggs has shot up by 450 percent, with labneh (Strained yogurt) costs jumping 275 percent. Lebanese TV and social media circulated images of people screaming in the streets for milk and medicine, and electricity to save seriously ill children, who need oxygen devices in their homes.

Pharmacist Samer Soubra told Arab News: “People come to the pharmacy to ask for simple medicines, such as ear drops, but I do not have them.” Soubra added: “I think that importers have a stockpile of medicines, but they refrain from distributing them to put pressure on the Banque du Liban to continue subsidizing medicine. “There is no political decision yet to lift subsidies on medicine. It’s chaos. “I expect within 10 days the scream will rise because sick people will get worse without treatment.” Dr. Ismail Sukkarieh, a gastroenterologist, told Arab News: “A colleague of mine, a cardiologist, was not able to install a spring into a patient’s artery because there was no blood thinner and left him at the mercy of those who trade in people’s health.” Dr. Sukkarieh pointed out that “the most missing medicines are those related to arterial hypertension and blood clots, and we do not know the reason.” He asked: “How can I believe the importers who say that their drug stores are empty? It is a blackmail operation against the Banque du Liban.” Dr. Sukkarieh held “those concerned with resolving the drug crisis responsible for any harm to, or death of any patient.”

by middleeastmonitor.com — Lebanon is suffering from an acute shortage of imported drugs, particularly for chronic diseases, amid a lack of foreign exchange in the country, Lebanese pharmaceutical importers warned on Sunday, reports Anadolu Agency. “The importing companies have run out of hundreds of essential medicines that treat chronic and incurable diseases,” the Syndicate of […]

By BARIA ALAMUDDIN — arabnews.com — If we don’t believe in change, we will never witness it. One of the principal obstacles to the revolutionary transformations required for Lebanon to survive as a state is the cynicism that perceives real change to be impossible — that corrupt elites will always cling to power, and nothing can be done about Hezbollah’s traitorous agenda. A symbolic blow was struck against this prevailing cynicism when Beirut’s Engineers Syndicate elected its general assembly. Despite supposed rivals such as the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), the Future Movement, Hezbollah and the Lebanese Forces collaborating in a ploy to retain control, they were swept aside, as nearly 80 percent of votes went to “Syndicate Revolts” candidates affiliated with the uprising. If the votes of 60,000 engineers from across Lebanon’s social spectrum can be replicated in national elections, the mind boggles at the implications!

We have run out of adjectives to adequately describe the rage and despair felt by ordinary Lebanese. All conventional factions have suffered crippling blows to popularity and credibility, and President Aoun, Gebran Bassil and the FPM have found that the depths of public enmity and loathing they command are practically limitless. Even Hezbollah and Amal, whose grassroots support was always taken for granted, have encountered unprecedented disenchantment. In an indication of how far the political class has fallen, investigating judge Tariq Bitar announced legal proceedings last week against a range of politicians, including acting Prime Minister Hassan Diab, over last year’s Beirut port explosion. It is thus no surprise that established factions are keen to see elections delayed for as long as possible, despite intense popular demands that they should be held immediately, as possibly the only route out of the crisis. Experts fear there will be efforts to delay the vote beyond the constitutionally mandated date of May 2022.

حينها، يتمكّن اللبنانيون من إنتاج قيادات سياسية جديدة، فيما تشفى القيادات السياسية القديمة من “متلازمة الترهيب”، وحينها، أيضاً يستطيع لبنان أن ينأى بنفسه عن حروب المنطق  وصراعاتها، وفق مفهوم “إعلان بعبدا” أو “اقتراح” البطريرك الماروني بشارة الراعي، فتعود الدولة اللبنانية إلى منظومة الصداقة لتلك الدول التي كانت يوماً تنقذ لبنان من كبواته المالية والاقتصادية. لقد […]

By Najia Houssari – arabnews.com — BEIRUT: The Lebanese judge investigating the Beirut port disaster last year said on Friday he would move to prosecute the country’s outgoing prime minister, Hassan Diab, and that he had taken steps toward indicting several other former ministers, security officials and members of the judiciary. Around 3,000 of tons of ammonium nitrate fertilizer exploded on Aug. 4, 2020, killing over 120 people, injuring more than 6,000 and ravaging swathes of the capital, in the midst of the coronavirus disease pandemic and a crippling financial crisis, causing the spotlight to fall on systemic corruption and mismanagement across all levels of Lebanon’s ruling class.

Judge Tariq Bitar began launching prosecutions on Friday, having taken evidence from witnesses for several months. As well as Diab, who has been summoned for preliminary questioning by Bitar, former Finance Minister Ali Hasan Khalil, former Minister of Defense and Public Works Ghazi Zaiter, former Interior Minister Nouhad Al-Mashnouq and Yusef Fenianos, the former transport and public works minister, are also set to face charges, with the judge formally requesting, through the Office of the Special Public Prosecutor, that their immunity from prosecution be lifted.

سجعان قزي

وزير سابق

@AzziSejean

بدأ هذا الصباحَ في روما “يومُ التفكيرِ والصلاةِ من أجلِ لبنان”. لافِتٌ أنْ يُقرِّرَ البابا فرنسيس شخصيًّا فتحَ مِلفِّ حلِّ القضيّةِ اللبنانيّةِ من خلالِ البطاركة الموقَّرين، كأنّه لا يَثِقُ بالدولةِ اللبنانيّةِ وبالجماعةِ السياسيّة؛ والباباوات قلّما يُخطِئون. هذه اللفتةُ تُحمّلُ البطاركةَ مسؤوليّةَ قولِ “الحقيقةِ اللبنانيّةِ” دونَ سِواها، خصوصًا أنّ الشعبَ اللبنانيَّ يَرصُدُهم بأنظارِه وآمالِه ليُرافعوا موحَّدين عن قضيّتِه وأوجاعِه ومصيرِه على غرارِ ما يَفعل البطريركُ بشارة الراعي في لبنان وأحبارٌ لبنانيّون شُجعان كالمتروبوليت الياس عوده.

دعوةُ قداسةِ البابا بطاركةَ الشرقِ تعني أنَّ قداستَه انتقَل من الاهتمامِ بلبنان، إلى التحرّكِ دُوليًّا لدعمِ حلٍّ سياسيٍّ للبنان. ما كان الفاتيكان اتّخَذَ هذا القرارَ لو لم يَبلُغ الوضعُ اللبنانيُّ مرحلةً حَرِجَة، ولو لم يَلمُسْ تجاوبًا أوّليًا لدى المرجِعيّاتِ الدوليّةِ القادرةِ على رعايةِ الحلّ. منذ بَدأت الاضطراباتُ الدستوريّةُ والسياسيّةُ والأمنيّةُ والاقتصاديّةُ، ودوائرُ الفاتيكان تحضِّرُ بصمتٍ وثَباتٍ لعملٍ دُوَليٍّ يوقفُ انهيارَ لبنان ويَضعُ المرتكزاتِ الأسَاسيّةَ لإنقاذِ “الوطن الرسالة”. يجري ذلك بالتنسيقِ المنتظِمِ مع البطريرك المارونيِّ بشارة الراعي الذي بادرَ وطرحَ الحِيادَ وتنفيذَ القراراتِ الدوليّةِ قاعدةً لأيِّ حلٍّ وطنيّ. لقد دَخل لبنانُ مدارَ الحلولِ، لكنْ لا نعرفُ مَداها الزمنيَّ، فكل حلٍّ مصيريٍّ يَتضمّنُ إشكاليّاتٍ تَستدعي المعالَجة بشكلٍ أو بآخَر.

By Courtney Mares — catholicnewsagency.com — Hosting a day of prayer for Lebanon with Catholic and Orthodox leaders on Thursday, Pope Francis said that the country should no longer be used to serve “unscrupulous interests.” “Stop using Lebanon and the Middle East for outside interests and profits,” the pope said July 1. “The Lebanese people must be given the opportunity to be the architects of a better future in their land, without undue interference.” Christian leaders from Lebanon spent the day at the Vatican in private roundtable discussions about the future of their country, which is facing a severe economic crisis.

Representatives from Lebanon’s Maronite, Melkite, Greek Orthodox, Syrian Orthodox, Chaldean, Syrian Catholic, and evangelical community came to the Vatican for the day of prayer. The day began with a moment of prayer in front of the high altar at St. Peter’s Basilica before the pope and the patriarchs placed lighted candles in the crypt chapel at the tomb of St. Peter. It ended with members of the Lebanese diaspora community gathered in the world’s largest Catholic basilica to pray for peace together with the pope and the patriarchs, with prayers offered in Arabic, Armenian, and Syriac.

IDC Opposes H.R. 4230 and H.R. 4073, Anti-Lebanese Armed Forces Bills Tel: (202) 351-5480 Email: sarah@indefenseofchristians.org – Sarah Bassil  Washington, DC- In Defense of Christians (IDC), the nation’s leading advocacy organization for Christians and religious minorities in the Middle East and Africa, opposes H.R. 4230: the Strategic Lebanon Security Reporting Act and H.R. 4073: Countering Hizballah […]

by Maggie Gile – Newsweek — As the country entered its 20th month of an economic and financial crisis, many goods, from gasoline, medicine and electricity, are experiencing drastic shortages. “My life was already difficult,” said Ibrahim Arab, a taxi driver who waited for hours in the hot summer to get gas for his car. “And now the gasoline crisis only made things worse.” Arab works a second job at a Beirut grocery store, though his monthly income has lost 95 percent of its purchasing power. For more reporting from the Associated Press, see below. When he’s not working, the 37-year-old father of two drives from one Beirut pharmacy to another, looking for baby formula for his 7-month-old son—any he can find—even though the infant got severe diarrhea and vomiting from an unfamiliar brand. He worries what would happen if his children got really sick. Once among the best in the region, Lebanon’s hospitals are struggling amid the country’s economic and financial crisis that has led to daily power outages that last for hours, shortages of diesel fuel for backup generators, and a lack of medical equipment and drugs. After 20 months of suffering with no end in sight, a new reality is setting in for most of Lebanon’s estimated 6 million people: Days filled with severe shortages—from spare parts for cars to medicine, fuel and other basic goods in the import-dependent country.

The crisis, which began in late 2019, is rooted in decades of corruption and mismanagement by a post-civil war political class that has accumulated debt and done little to encourage local industries, forcing the country to rely on imports for almost everything. The Lebanese pound has nose-dived, banks have clamped down on withdrawals and transfers, and hyperinflation has flared. The liquidity crunch is crippling the government’s ability to provide fuel, electricity and basic services. A shortage of dollars is gutting imports of medical supplies and energy. The fuel shortage has especially raised fears that the country could become paralyzed. Even private generators, used by the Lebanese for decades, have to be switched off for hours to conserve diesel. “We are really in hell,” tweeted Firas Abiad, director general of Rafik Hariri University Hospital, which leads the country’s coronavirus fight. Despite a heat wave, the hospital decided Monday to turn off the air conditioning, except in medical departments. Electricity cuts have affected internet connections in various cities, while bakeries warn they might have to close due to fuel shortages. The situation has become critical in recent weeks, with scuffles and shootings at gas pumps, including one in the northern city of Tripoli, where the son of one station’s owner was killed.