Bitar has been the recipient of heavy criticism from Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s leader, who has repeatedly accused him of politicizing the probe. On Monday, Nasrallah spent nearly a quarter of his one-hour speech meant to address the country’s multiple crises to criticize almost every decision Bitar has made. He accused him of politicizing the probe, targeting mainly officials who are allies of Hezbollah while failing to even question others. Some Lebanese have pointed the finger at Hezbollah, saying it may have stored explosives at the port, a charge the group denies. No evidence has emerged that links Hezbollah directly to the blast and none of its members are defendants in the case. Bitar’s removal, if it happens, will be a major blow to the investigation, and a clear violation of the already questioned independence of the judiciary.

by english.alaraby.co.uk — The head of Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement Monday accused the judge leading investigations into last year’s port blast of politicising the probe and called for an “honest” judge to take over. Tarek Bitar, appointed to lead investigations in February after his predecessor was removed for summoning senior leaders, has come under increasing scrutiny for also going after top officials suspected of criminal negligence. He was recently forced to suspend his work for a week because of lawsuits filed by former ministers demanding his removal, before a court this month turned down their request allowing him to resume investigations. “There are very big mistakes happening… (Bitar) won’t deliver the truth, nor will he deliver justice; only injustice and an obscuring of the truth,” Hezbollah chief Hasan Nasrallah said. “This doesn’t mean we are calling for an end to investigations, not at all, but we are calling for an honest and transparent judge to work on a probe that is also clear, transparent” and free of political bias, he added.

Speaking in a televised address, Nasrallah accused Bitar of “working toward political objectives,” without elaborating. The Hezbollah leader said Bitar’s summonses revealed a political bias. “We had warned him not to be biased and not to politicise the investigation… now he is approaching it as though he is the master of the case.” Last month, Lebanese media leaked a message from a senior Hezbollah official to Bitar, threatening him with removal over his approach to the investigation. “Things cannot go on this way, especially in the coming days,” Nasrallah said on Monday.

By NAJIA HOUSSARI — arabnews.com — BEIRUT: Firefighters extinguished a blaze that broke out on Monday morning at Al-Zahrani oil facility, south of Beirut, with Lebanese Energy Minister Walid Fayyad estimating that 250,000 liters of petrol had been destroyed in the incident. He suggested the fire had been caused by a “mistake during the process of transporting the fuel that was in the tank, whose ceiling was tilted.” As many as 15 fully staffed fire trucks worked to control the fire by isolating the tank to prevent the flames from spreading. The fire provoked memories of the massive blast at Beirut Port 14 months ago, which killed more than 200 people, injured thousands, and devastated the capital. People went on social media to express their fears about the Al-Zahrani fire being deliberate, while others regretted their “bad luck and the never-ending daily catastrophes.” An investigation has been launched into the fire. “We must wait for the results of the investigation in order to know whether anyone is responsible or whether the fire was caused by natural factors,” Fayyad noted.

Civil Defense Director-General Brig. Gen. Raymond Khattar said it was “too early” to know the causes of the fire. The Lebanese army gave 6,000 kiloliters of gas oil to Electricite du Liban from its reserves to reconnect the electrical grid in production plants to bring the country out of its total blackout due to fuel shortages. Fayyad said: “Today, the Jiyeh reverse engine plant was connected to the grid with a power of 50 megawatts, Deir Ammar plant with a power of 210 megawatts, and the reverse engine plant in Zouk with a power of 120 megawatts, as well as Al-Zahrani. “This quantity is enough for three days, after which the plants’ production capacity will be replaced by another from the Zouk and Jiyeh thermal plants after supplying them with the fuel oil that arrived on Sunday evening, samples of which were examined by the Bureau Veritas labs in Dubai. The total production capacity will thus remain within limits at 500 megawatts to maintain the grid’s stability. “The Central Bank has agreed to secure $100 million to conduct a bid to import fuel, which will help raise the hours of electricity supply by the end of this month.”

  منقول كما هو : *سبق ان صرَّح الرئيس سليمان مراراً استعداده للذهاب الى القاضي والادلاء بما يعلم، وتحديدا من صرح بكركي :*  *ولدى سوأله عن تصريح نصرالله اليوم اجاب …. انه ما يزال على استعداد للذهاب الى القاضي باستدعاء ودون استدعاء*  *وهذا ما صرَّح به سابقاً فخامة الرئيس ميشال سليمان سابقا*  ١١/٨/٢٠٢١  _سليمان من […]

by lbcgroup.tv — Maronite Patriarch Cardinal Bechara Boutros Al Rahi appealed for a Lebanese and international surveillance of the electoral process starting today. Speaking in his religious sermon as he presided over Sunday Mass this morning, the Patriarch said: “While the people and friends of Lebanon want a better future for the country, we are keen on holding the parliamentary elections at their constitutional dates, so that changing the dates, amending the existing law, and circumventing the participation of expatriates do not become excuses that threaten the holding of elections against the will of the people and the international community.” He added that “tampering with the issue of elections this time would lead to risks of unknown repercussions…

The people want the elections as an opportunity to change their painful reality, and a starting point for a new national life. The people want transparent and fair elections, far from political money that bets on people’s poverty to buy their votes and conscience. Therefore, we call, from now, for Lebanese and international monitoring of the electoral process.” Over the new government’s mission, the Patriarch said: “We are counting on the current government, especially on its head, who assured us, in his honorable visit yesterday, of his determination to work to overcome the many obstacles that would confront his cabinet, and to embark on the reform workshop immediately, without which there is no success, aid, or Arab and international solidarity.”

by By Tamara Qiblawi, CNN — Lebanon’s main state electricity company supplied around two hours of power to the national grid, local residents told CNN on Sunday, a day after the country was reported to have disconnected from its grid due to fuel depletion. On Saturday, Lebanon’s Energy Minister Walid Fayad told CNN Arabic that […]

BEIRUT,  (Reuters) – Lebanon has no centrally generated electricity after fuel shortages forced its two largest power stations to shut down, a government official told Reuters on Saturday. “The Lebanese power network completely stopped working at noon today, and it is unlikely that it will work until next Monday, or for several days,” the official […]

by reuters — Lebanon’s central bank denied on Friday a Swiss newspaper report that alleged the International Monetary Fund had removed information from a 2016 report on the country at the request of central bank governor Riad Salameh. Switzerland’s Le Temps said in a report on Thursday that in 2016, as Lebanon was headed towards financial ruin, 14 pages containing vital information were removed from an IMF assessment through the intervention of Salameh. Reuters could not independently verify the report.

Salameh did not respond to a request from Reuters for comment. “This article and everything that was mentioned in it has nothing to do with the truth,” the Lebanese central bank said in a statement. “What was reported in Le Temps newspaper makes clear the article is not serious as it says the governor of the central bank of Lebanon personally omitted 14 pages from a report of an international and respectable organisation like the IMF.” According to the IMF’s transparency policy, deletions to staff reports are generally considered at the request of the authorities of the country the report is about.

“Deletions should be limited to information that is not already in the public domain that constitutes either: Highly market-sensitive material, mainly the Fund’s views on the outlook for exchange rates, interest rates, the financial sector, and assessments of sovereign liquidity and solvency,” the IMF rules, published in 2014, say. An IMF spokesperson told Reuters the 2016 report had highlighted as an early warning key vulnerabilities facing the Lebanese financial system. “It emphasized the need to reduce economic and financial risks, including the reliance on new deposit inflows to cover large fiscal and external deficits. It also pointed to significant resources that would be needed to ensure banks remained capitalized in the event of a severe shock,” the spokesperson said. Lebanon is suffering what the World Bank has described as one of the deepest depressions in modern history. Its economic meltdown has thrown three-quarters of the population into poverty and the Lebanese pound currency has lost 90% of its value in the past two years.

هناك نوعان من الكوتا  واحدة في الترشيح وواحدة في الفوز في المقاعد . لدى اقرار مشروع قانون الانتخابات عام ٢٠١٢ لم تحظى الكوتا النسائية فوزاً بموافقة مجلس الوزراء وبعد الجهد الجهيد تمت الموافقة على كونا ١٠/١٠٠ ترشيحاً في كل لائحة على ان لا تقل عن مرشحة واحدة. معظم الكتل النيابية للاسف ضد الكوتا النسائية ولكن […]

By NAJIA HOUSSARI — arabnews.com — BEIRUT: Talks between Iran and Saudi Arabia have covered a “good distance,” Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian told a news conference in Beirut on Thursday, referring to efforts to improve ties. Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati welcomed on behalf of his government “the positivity prevailing on the Saudi-Iranian talks, hosted by Iraq.” He stressed the need to “believe in the honest intentions of the interlocutors to put an end to the conflict and pave the way for the establishment of new relationships based on mutual respect, to achieve states’ sovereignty and non-interference of internal affairs and preserve their stability and security and achieve the aspirations of their peoples, which will have positive effects on Lebanon.”

Amirabdollahian held a joint press conference with his Lebanese counterpart Abdullah Bou Habib, during which Amirabdollahian announced that “the dialogue that we believe in aims to address regional and international issues and we have come a long way in our talks with Saudi Arabia.” Amirabdollahian discussed with Lebanese officials the arrival of the first Iranian gasoline shipment to Syria’s Banyas port. This will be shipped to Lebanon by Syrian tankers that Hezbollah will get into the country through illegal crossings. None of the Lebanese officials directly criticized the Iranian fuel shipped into the country despite the sanctions placed on Iran. Instead, President Michel Aoun reiterated “Iran’s solidarity with Lebanon during its crisis and the aids it has provided for the country in the aftermath of the Beirut port blast.”

هناك شعوبٌ مهما حاولَ أعداؤُها تقسيمَها، تعودُ وتتوحّدُ لأنَّ شعورَها القوميَّ الواحِدَ أقوى من التقسيمِ. وهناك شعوبٌ مهما حاول حلفاؤُها توحيدَها، تعود وتَنقسِمُ لأنَّ مشاعرَ مكوّناتِها القوميّةَ مبعثرةٌ وولاءاتِها ضالةٌ تَجوبُ في أوطانٍ أخرى. محاولاتُ التمرّدِ على هذه الحتميّةِ التاريخيّةِ أدّت إلى مآسٍ. المئةُ سنةٍ المنصرمةُ شَهِدَت تغييرَ حدودِ ثمانينَ دولةً في أنحاءِ العالم انفصالًا أو تقسيمًا أو توحيدًا. من التغييراتِ ما حَصَل سلميًّا، منها ما جرى عسكريًّا، والباقي حَصلَ بفعلِ مخطَّطٍ خارجيّ. قد تكون تجاربُ ألمانيا والاتّحادِ السوفياتيِّ والعالمِ العربيّ أكثرَ تعبيرًا عن دورِ الحرّيةِ والقوميّةِ والدينِ والاستعمارِ في تغييرِ الدولِ والأوطان.

في مثلِ هذا اليوم 07 تشرين الأوّل 1949، أعْلنَت الدولُ المنتصرِةُ في الحربِ العالميّةِ الثانية (أميركا، فرنسا، بريطانيا والاتحاد السوفياتي) تقسيمَ ألمانيا رسميًّا دولتين بعد اقتسامِها سنةَ 1945. لكنَّ الشعبَ الألمانيَّ سارعَ واستعادَ وِحدتَه الفدراليّةَ لحظةَ بَدءِ سقوطِ الاتّحادِ السوفياتي سنةَ 1989. ولاحقًا أصبحَت أنجيلا ميركل، ابنةُ ألمانيا الشيوعيّة، مستشارةَ ألمانيا الموحَّدةِ الليبراليّة. المشاعرُ القوميّةُ حيّةٌ.

وفي مثلِ هذه الفترة أيضًا ـــ تشرين الأوّل سنة 1989 ـــ انتفَض الشعبُ الروسيُّ على الاتّحادِ السوفياتيّ، فإذا 15 دولةً، كان النظامُ الشيوعيُّ جَمعَها قَسْرًا طَوالَ أكثرَ من سبعينَ سنةً، بادَرت إلى الانفصالِ والرجوعِ إلى كياناتٍ قوميّةٍ سابقة. وبعضُ هذه الشعوب عاد وانقَسَم إتنيًّا ودينيًّا داخلَ كياناتِه الجديدةِ مثلَ دولِ بلادِ البلقان (تشيكوسلوفاكيا، يوغسلافيا ومقدونيا). لا تَحرّرَ من دونِ استقلالٍ.