By Najia Houssari — arabnews.com –BEIRUT: Tons of wheat, corn and barley stored at the Port of Beirut since the devastating explosion that rocked the city 16 months ago are to be disposed of as they are no longer fit for consumption, it has been found. As temperatures change, mold, weevils and other insects have made it impossible to reach the contents of silos at the site without protective equipment; according to the World Health Organization, mold produces mycotoxins “which can cause a variety of adverse health effects and pose a serious health threat to both humans and livestock … ranging from acute poisoning to long-term effects such as immune deficiency and cancer.” Before the blast, the port’s silos contained about 45 tons of wheat, barley and corn, most of which was lost during the explosion. Minister of Environment Nasser Yassin said that six to seven tons remain at the site. Lab tests run on samples of wheat in cooperation with the ministries of economy, agriculture and environment, the American University of Beirut, Saint Joseph University, and the French Embassy, which brought in experts to assist, showed that the crops “are suitable for neither human nor animal use.”

In August, a year after the explosion, the remaining grains were removed from their silos and stored in the open air to reduce the risks of accidental fires in the hot weather, but resulted in hastening the demise of the crops as fit for consumption. A committee formed under the government of former Prime Minister Hassan Diab failed to reach a solution. Yassin told Arab News: “We decided to ferment these quantities and turn them into compost to be distributed to farmers for free, or turn them into industrial firewood to be given to the Lebanese Army to heat its units in the high mountains, or donate them to needy families living in cold areas.” He added: “Turning them into compost allows us to avoid any procedure that produces heavy metals, and we started with this process with the help of MAN Group, which obtained funding from France to treat organic waste resulting from the explosion, and had signed the contract with the Lebanese state in May.”

لخطط الانقاذية السياسية والاصلاحية، الهندسات المالية والاقتصادية والاجتماعية لن تجدي نفعاً في المدى المنظور طالما سيادة الدولة مفقودة. من المفيد وضع هذه الملفات جانباً والانخراط في بحث جدّي، صريح وشجاع حول تحييد لبنان وتصويب السياسة الخارجية، حصر السلاح، ضبط الحدود ومعابرها، رفع اليد عن القضاء والمرافق العامة والمؤسسات وتنقية اجهزة المخابرات والمعلومات … والا لا […]

by vaticannews.va — A sequence of political crises, financial speculation, the COVID-19 pandemic, and, finally, the massive explosion at Beirut’s port on 4 August 2020 have plunged Lebanon into economic disaster. However, according to Maronite Archbishop of Beirut Paul Abdel Sater, not all is lost and there still is hope. “It is a disaster, which has yet to be fully grasped” Speaking to Vatican News in his home in Beirut, Maronite Archbishop Paul Abdel Sater does not mince his words: “Ordinary people are becoming poorer and poorer. Medicines are increasingly expensive and hospitals are unaffordable”, he says.

A humanitarian catastrophe: According to the Lebanese prelate, it is a humanitarian catastrophe that is unfolding day after day with no apparent way out: “For a number of reasons the government is paralyzed, while in our society people are desperate”. Hope against all odds: However, although the future seems bleak, not all is lost: “As a Church, as Christians, we still have hope against all odds. We still confide in the goodness of human beings and of the Lebanese people”, Bishop Sater says.

A growing chain of solidarity is helping the country cope with one of the worst crises in the country since the 1975-1990 war. Relief from international religious and not religious organizations is of great help to the population and to the Christian community in Lebanon. According to Archbishop Sater, this relief could help contain mass emigration, which is essential if the Middle Eastern country is to remain an example of “religious and cultural pluralism” in the region.

BEIRUT (AP) By ZEINA KARAM and SARAH EL DEEB  — Lebanon’s information minister resigned Friday, a move many hope could open the way for easing an unprecedented diplomatic row with Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Arab nations that has compounded the small country’s multiple crises. George Kordahi, the minister and a prominent former game show host, said he took the decision to step down ahead of French President Emmanuel Macron’s visit to Saudi Arabia on Saturday. The resignation, Kordahi said at a press conference in the Lebanese capital, may help Macron start a dialogue to help restore Beirut-Riyadh relations. But the crisis goes deeper than Kordahi’s comments aired in late October, in which he was critical of the Saudi-led war in Yemen. His resignation is unlikely going to be a game changer in the dynamics of the crisis. It is rooted in Saudi Arabia’s uneasiness over the rising influence of Iran in the region, including in Lebanon, once a traditional Saudi ally and recipient of financial assistance from the oil-rich kingdom. It is also unlikely to diffuse internal divisions in Lebanon and a government paralysis made worse during the diplomatic crisis.

Saudi Arabia, which has been joined by other Gulf Arab states in a boycott of Lebanon, is unhappy with the dominance of the Iran-backed militant Hezbollah group and its allies on the levers of power in Lebanon. “The Saudi view is that any initiative that does not address that core issue will not succeed nor receive its blessing,” said the risk consultancy Eurasia Group in a statement Friday. “As a result, a minister’s resignation will be viewed as somewhat constructive but largely irrelevant to the much larger issue at hand.” Prospects of significant financial assistance to Lebanon are therefore dim, the group said. That crisis has added to immense economic troubles facing Lebanon, already mired in a financial meltdown. Following Kordahi’s televised comments, the kingdom recalled its ambassador from Beirut and banned all Lebanese imports, affecting hundreds of businesses and cutting off hundreds of millions in foreign currency to Lebanon. That aggravated Lebanon’s economic crisis, the worst in its modern history, which has plunged more than three quarters of the nation’s population of 6 million, including a million Syrian refugees, into poverty.

الجمهورية: لتعزيز القدرات السيادية للجيش وحصر السلاح بيده وحده  شدد “لقاء الجمهورية”خلال اجتماعه الدوري الالكتروني على” ضرورة عودة الحكومة إلى الاجتماع بعد استقالة وزير الاعلام، لأن وجود حكومة فاعلة هو شرط أول على طريق العودة من الجحيم الاقتصادي الناجم عن سياسات جهنمية وضعت لبنان في “بوز المدفع” بدلا من تحييده عن نيران الحروب المشتعلة هنا […]

وطنية – الفاتيكان – يحتل لبنان في قلب الفاتيكان مكانة مميزة، إذ ان البابا فرنسيس يلفت دائما الى قربه من بلد الأرز. وخلال لقائه رئيس مجلس الوزراء نجيب ميقاتي قبل نحو أسبوع، قال الحبر الأعظم: “لبنان رسالة وهو أيضا وعد علينا أن نناضل من أجله”.
ماذا حملت زيارة ميقاتي الى الفاتيكان في ظل الظروف الضاغطة التي يعيشها لبنان اجتماعيا وسياسيا واقتصاديا، وهل حققت هدفها؟ مندوب “الوكالة الوطنية للاعلام” في الفاتيكان حمل هذه الأسئلة وغيرها الى سفير لبنان لدى الكرسي الرسولي فريد الياس الخازن الذي قال: “زيارة ناجحة، شكلا ومضمونا، قام بها رئيس الحكومة نجيب ميقاتي الى حاضرة الفاتيكان. رافق الرئيس ميقاتي وفد كبير ضم أفراد العائلة بالإضافة الى الوفد الرسمي. اتصالات سابقة للزيارة أجريت لتسهيل استقبال الوفد الكبير، نظرا للإجراءات الوقائية المتخذة لأسباب مرتبطة بجائحة كورونا. ولقد ترك اللقاء بين الرئيس ميقاتي وقداسة البابا أثرا إيجابيا خارج إطار الشكليات البروتوكولية على المستويين الخاص والعام.
استغرق اللقاء بين الحبر الأعظم والرئيس ميقاتي نحو 25 دقيقة، تبعه دخول البابا الى الصالة الكبرى لمباركة الحضور وأخذ الصور التذكارية. وتناول اللقاء مسائل مبدئية تخص الأوضاع المأزومة في لبنان والحاجة الماسة لمعالجتها بكل الوسائل المتاحة”.

by Reuters — CAIRO, (Reuters) – Lebanese Information Minister George Kordahi confirmed to Lebanon’s MTV on Friday that he will announce his resignation today at 1 p.m. local time (1100 GMT). He also said to the local television that his resignation may ease the crisis between Lebanon and Saudi Arabia. He said “since the first […]

By SARAH EL DEEB – apnews.com — BEIRUT (AP) — A Lebanese DJ was days away from moving to Riyadh to play for a month in one of the newest entertainment centers in Saudi Arabia’s capital when a brief, polite Whatsapp message informed her that the contract won’t go through. The head of a Beirut-based communications agency had been negotiating to revive a two-year-old contract derailed by the pandemic for hundreds of thousands of dollars. After two days of silence her Saudi client, in an apologetic call, said now is not the time. A business owner who for years exported stationary to the kingdom had to return 20 containers of notebooks and paper ready for shipping to his warehouse outside of Beirut. “Please freeze everything,” Ziad Bekdache recalled the handlers telling him.

These are some of the victims of Saudi Arabia’s furious backlash against Lebanon in October after a Lebanese minister criticized its war against Iran-backed rebels in Yemen. At the root of the crisis is a years-old regional rivalry with Iran, and Saudi unease about the increasing clout of Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group. Lebanon is caught in the middle. In response to the minister’s comments, Saudi Arabia recalled its ambassador and banned Lebanese imports ranging from chocolate to chemical products, which used to bring in about $240 million a year. The diplomatic crisis is causing anxiety among Lebanese, particularly those who work in Gulf countries, at a time when Lebanon is already enduring an unprecedented economic meltdown. “I felt bad, not just for my part, but for my country and for the expats,” said DJ Chloe. “We all have families abroad.”

Remittances from more than 350,000 Lebanese working and living in the Gulf have been essential, particularly as the meltdown drives up inflation and unemployment in the once middle-income country. The World Bank said remittances of over $6.2 billion, mostly from Gulf countries, made up 18.9% of Lebanon’s GDP in 2020, one of the highest in the world. While the dollar value of exports to Saudi Arabia has declined in past years, the kingdom had been a top importer of Lebanese products, including soap, printed books and some canned food.

سجعان قزي

@AzziSejean

في بيتِنا إيرانُ، فماذا نفعل؟ بعضُنا يعتبرُها في بيتِها. وبعضُنا يَعتبرُها احتلالًا. وهناك من وَجدَ فيها، مَهدِيًّا مُوَقّتًا إلى أن يأتيَ الـمَهْديُّ المنتظَر. حَوّلت إيرانُ لبنانَ جُزءًا من استراتيجيّتِها كونَه: 1) يمثِّلُ الدولةَ الوحيدةَ التي في الشرقِ الأوسطِ يَحكُمها مسيحيُّ. 2) يَضمُّ وجودًا شيعيًّا تاريخيًّا ذا شأنٍ. 3) تلعبُ فيه الطائفةُ السُنّيةُ دورًا مؤثّــِرًا. 4) يَقعُ على الحدودِ الشماليّةِ لدولةِ إسرائيل. 5) يُشكِّلُ المدى الجنوبيَّ ـــ الغربيَّ في مشروعِ الهلالِ الشيعيِّ. 6) يتفاعلُ إيجابًا مع دولِ الخليج العربيّةِ. 7) يتعاون برحابةِ صدرٍ مع أميركا وأوروبا. 8) يَسهُلُ التدخّلُ في شؤونِه والسيطرةُ عليه بسببِ تركيبتِه الطوائفيّةِ الهشّة وضُعفِ وِحدتِه.

إيرانُ اعتمَدت لبنانَ مَلعبًا فسيحًا تُبارزُ فيه العربَ والعالمَ في غيابِ أيِّ حَكَمٍ محليٍّ أو حُكمٍ وطنيٍّ أو رادعٍ عربيٍّ ودوليّ. في البَدء لم يَكترِث اللبنانيّون كفايةً للمخطّطِ الإيرانيِّ، الذي تَكشَّف لاحقًا تدريجًا، للأسباب التالية: 1) أنَّ القوّاتِ المتعدِّدةَ الجنسيّاتِ الموجودةَ آنذاك في بيروت ستَصُدُّ التمدّدَ الإيرانيَّ، لكنَّها جَبُنت ونَكَثَت بوعدِها وانسحبَت 2) أنَّ الشيعةَ اللبنانيّين الّذين تميّزوا عمومًا بولائِهم الوطنيِّ، لن يذهبوا بعيدًا في المشروعِ الخمينيّ. 3) أنْ تَنكَفِئَ إيران إثرَ هزيمةِ سنةَ 1988 أمامَ العراق. 4) ألّا يَسمحَ النظامُ السوريُّ، الذي كان حاكِمًا لبنان آنذاك، لإيران أن تُشاطِرَه السيطرةَ، وإذا هو توانى، تقوم إسرائيلُ بتدميرِ الآلةِ العسكريّةِ لحزبِ الله. 5) أنَّ سوريا، وحتى إيران، ستَسْتخدِمان حزبَ الله في الجنوبِ حَصريًّا بديلًا عن المنّظماتِ الفِلسطينيّةِ إلى حين توقيعِ سوريا السلامَ الذي كان على الأبوابِ في أواسطِ التسعيناتِ بعد مؤتمرِ مدريد واتفاقيّةِ أوسلو ورسائلِ اسحق رابين إلى حافظ الأسد.

by al-monitor.com – Lebanon will impose a three-week curfew for unvaccinated residents beginning Dec. 17 and mandate vaccines for certain workers in an effort to stave off the new Omicron coronavirus variant. Those without at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose or a negative PCR test in the past 48 hours will be subject to a curfew from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. Under new rules unveiled by Lebanon’s COVID-19 committee on Wednesday, public servants and workers in the security, military, health, education and tourism sectors must be fully vaccinated by Jan. 10 or pay for their own PCR test twice a week. The coronavirus committee also decided to extend by several days the winter holiday for schools and universities in order for students to have more time to get vaccinated. Bars and restaurants will be required to turn away customers who are not at least partially vaccinated or have tested negative.

The small Mediterranean country has yet to confirm any cases of the Omicron variant, but its strained health care system is still struggling to tamp down COVID-19 cases. On Wednesday, the Health Ministry announced 1,892 new infections and 10 deaths from the virus, raising the country’s total to more than 670,000 cases and over 8,700 deaths since the start of the pandemic. A number of other Middle East countries have rolled out travel restrictions and other containment measures to slow the spread of the new variant, which was discovered in South Africa and has since been identified in more than 20 countries.