QLEIAT, Lebanon (AP)  by By BASSEM MROUE and FAY ABUELGASIM — Saydi Mubarak and her mother share a bond that goes beyond a close mother-daughter relationship: They were both diagnosed with breast cancer a year ago and underwent months of chemotherapy at a Beirut hospital, together facing the anxiety, the hair loss and the uncertainty for the future. Now they share the fear of not being able to get the medication they need to complete their treatment because in Lebanon, where a devastating economic crisis has upended daily life, there are almost no drugs to be found. The small Mediterranean country — once a medical hub in the Middle East — is grappling with severe shortages in medical supplies, fuel and other necessities. The economic crisis, described as one of the world’s worst of the past 150 years, is rooted in decades of corruption and mismanagement by a political class that has accumulated debt and done little to encourage local industries, forcing the country to rely on imports for almost everything.

But those imports are hard to come by since the Lebanese pound has lost more than 90% of its value since 2019, and the Central Bank’s foreign reserves are drying up. The crisis was worsened by a massive explosion that destroyed the country’s main port last year. For months, pharmacy shelves have been bare, exacerbated by panic buying and suppliers holding back drugs, hoping to sell them later for higher prices amid the uncertainty. Hospitals are at a breaking point, barely able to secure diesel to keep generators and life-saving machines operating day to day. The drug shortages threaten tens of thousands of people, including cancer patients. In desperation, many have taken to social media or turned to travelers coming from abroad. Visitors and Lebanese expats these days often arrive with suitcases full of pills, vials and other medical supplies for relatives and friends.

by kataeb.org — Resigned Kataeb lawmaker Nadim Gemayel on Tuesday stressed the need to continue with the struggle for a better Lebanon, saying that 39 years have passed and yet the torch of martyr President Bachir Gemayel hasn’t been extinguished yet. “September 14, 1982; 39 years have passed and yet the dream did not come […]

في شباط ٢٠١٩ وازاء تريث لبنان بالتبادل التجاري مع ايران خوفاً من العقوبات زار وزير الخارجية جواد ظريف لبنان ليعرض تسهيلات للاستيراد والدفع بالعملة الوطنية وازاء تريث لبنان مرة ثانية ارسلوا بواخر النفط لبيعها بالليرة اللبنانية ….

By REBECCA ANNE PROCTOR — arabnews.com — DUBAI: A busy traffic scene in downtown Beirut set to the backdrop of the crumbling silos destroyed in last year’s devastating port explosion tells the tale of a city fighting to get through another day. Life is anything but normal in the bustling Mediterranean city, and from the dockyard debris a crane lifts a foreboding large statue onto a truck as people hurl curses toward it. The statue is transported into the Lebanese mountains to be placed among piles of trash at a new landfill site that surrounds the home of the Badri family. This is the opening scene of Lebanese director Mounia Akl’s first fiction-feature film, “Costa Brava,” which premiered on Sept. 5 at the Venice Film Festival. The film also segues from Akl’s acclaimed 2015 short movie “Submarine” about Lebanon’s 2015 garbage crisis and the corruption behind it.

The opening images, with the sinister Beirut port silos lurking in the background, were not at first intended to be included in her film — a script she began writing four years ago. The 32-year-old filmmaker’s haunting and upsetting feature was originally meant to depict a dystopian Lebanon in 2030 at its worst. “I tried to imagine this dystopian future where none of our problems had been solved and the country was an extreme version of itself,” she told Arab News. “It was somehow a way for me to imagine the worst for myself in the same way you sometimes want to explore your trauma in a cathartic way. It was a way for me to imagine the worst in my mind as a way of avoiding the worst happening in my mind and in life.”

By Maha El Dahan — reuters — BEIRUT, (Reuters) – Lebanon’s new Prime Minister Najib Mikati, who took office last week promising to revive IMF talks to unlock aid, said on Monday there was no time to lose and no easy path to tackle one of history’s worst economic meltdowns. The new government, formed after more than a year of political stalemate, met for the first time on Monday, replacing a caretaker administration that had quit in the aftermath of last year’s Beirut port explosion that killed hundreds, injured thousands and left large swathes of the capital destroyed. read more “It is true that we don’t have a magic wand. The situation is very difficult,” Mikati, a billionaire-turned-politician told the cabinet, according to a statement published after the government’s first meeting. Lebanese hope the new administration will plot a path out of a crisis that has sunk the currency by some 90% since late 2019 and forced three quarters of the population into poverty.

Mikati pledged to help resolve shortages of fuel and medicine, supplies of which have dried up as the import-dependent nation’s hard currency reserves have run out. State electricity is available for a few hours a day, if at all, and most Lebanese homes and establishments increasingly rely on private generators. A generator at a dentist’s clinic in Tyre exploded on Monday leaving seven people injured, a reflection of the safety hazards of relying heavily on the alternative source of power.

وثيقةُ الوفاقِ الوطني، وبكونها العقد الاجتماعي بين ال#لبنانيين، تُشَكّلُ القاعدة المرجعية التي انبثق منها #الدستور اللبناني، والدستور هو قانونُ الدولة السياسيّ ويَتَضَمّنُ مجموعة من القواعد الأساسية التي تنظّمُ العلاقة بين سلطات الدولة كما تحدّد اختصاص كلٍّ منها وطرق ممارسة صلاحياتها بهدف إدارة شؤون الدولة الداخلية والخارجية. 

من المُسَلّم بهِ أنّ العقد الاجتماعي يتَّصف بعدم الثبات نظراً الى اتّصاله بالسلوك الانساني والاجتماعي الذي يتّسم هو الآخرُ بالتّحوّل والتَغَيّر، وبخاصة في الدول التعدّدية مثل لبنان، حيث يتعرّض لِلاهتزاز تبعاً للتطور الديموغرافي ولتطور الأوضاع في الدول المحيطة بها، فيؤدي ذلك إلى خلل في تطبيق الدستور وإلى عدم الالتزام بروحه بسبب التباين في فهم وتفسير المفردات والمصطلحات المتعلقة بالاستقلال والحرّية والسيادة والديموقراطية والهوّية والعيش المشترك…لذلك ينبغي العمل على تحصين هذا العقد كي يبقى صالحاً لفترات طويلة ممّا يُرسي استقراراً سياسياً ينعكس نمواً اقتصادياً واستقراراً أمنياً وقانونياً واجتماعياً. إن عملية التحصين لا تَتِمّ إلّا عبر استكمال تطبيق الدستور وسَنّ القوانين وإصدار المراسيم التنظيمية الضرورية للتفسير والتطبيق كما والاجتهاد من ضمن روحية القانون بُغية الوصول إلى تعديلات تشرح بوضوح آليات حسن التنفيذ من دون أن تمسّ بجوهر العقد الاجتماعي أو بصلاحيات وبمسؤوليات مختلف السلطات التشريعية والاجرائية والقضائية. 

by english.alaraby.co.uk — Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said on Sunday that his new cabinet’s priorities are to mend ties with Arab nations and solve the country’s pressing issues, particularly the energy crisis. “Now is not the time for political (bickering), but rather the time to get to work to lift Lebanon from its crises, put a stop to the collapse, and speed up work on solving the electricity crisis and finding quick solutions to it,” Mikati said in comments to Almodon. Lebanon was plunged into an exacerbating energy crisis this year due to fuel shortages necessary for power plants and private generators, as the Lebanese Central Bank gradually lifts subsidies because of dwindling US dollar reserves. Mikati had previously said that the new government will be forced to lift subsidies completely on fuel, which could push the country further into crisis if no solutions are found immediately.

A 2009 agreement with Egypt recently brought back to light could see Lebanon import natural gas, as well as electricity from Jordan, to help solve the crisis. Electricity expenditure accounts to about half of Lebanon’s sovereign debt. Speaking to Almodon, Mikati preferred not to touch on sensitive political topics to avoid division in his new cabinet, but instead said he looked forward to cooperating with President Michel Aoun to achieve what was necessary. “This must start with a new governmental and political methodology, topped with restoring relations with all states, especially Arab countries. This is what should be focused on in the ministerial statement,” he said. Ties between Lebanon and Gulf states have been rattled in recent years due to repeated attacks on their leaders by Hezbollah head Hassan Nasrallah. Gulf states have accused the Shia paramilitary group of assisting other Iranian-backed militias, such as Yemen’s Houthis, in launching drone attacks on Saudi Arabia.

By By Dale Gavlak — voanews.com — Following yearlong political paralysis that has sunk its economy, Lebanon finally has a new government. Analysts wonder, though, whether Prime Minister Najib Mikati, the country’s richest man, will deliver the needed reforms to revive the ailing nation and rescue Lebanon from bankruptcy. His Cabinet reinforces the country’s crippling sectarianism and Gulf Arabs will be unlikely to provide financial help as long as Iran-backed Hezbollah maintains a stranglehold on power, the analysts say. Pressing Lebanese politicians to end their political bickering over portfolios, the U.S. and France welcomed the new government, saying urgent action must be taken to tackle the country’s dire economic crisis, especially after the deadly Beirut port blast in August of last year.

Lebanese analyst Dania Koleilat Khatib with the Issam Fares Institute at the American University of Beirut told VOA that after more than 13 months of waiting for a new government, the Lebanese people are disappointed with the resulting Cabinet, and desperate to stop the slide toward poverty and chaos they are experiencing. Most critically, she says that the finance minister who needs to resume talks with the International Monetary Fund on unlocking badly needed financial support, is viewed as unlikely to be tough enough on his former employer, the central bank, which is widely blamed for Lebanon’s bankruptcy. “They kept the same sectarian network, the same system,” she said. “People were expecting change. Nothing new, same old, same old because still there will not be any reforms unless the Ministry of Finance is free put by a really independent person.

السياسة الخارجية للبنان يجب ان تعيده الى الدول التي ارتبط بها عبر التاريخ بعلاقات الصداقة والمصلحة. هذه الدول هي التي ينتشر فيها اولادنا او احفادنا ويعملون ويستثمرون ويتخصصون في ربوعها ويقصدونها للاستشفاء. هذه الدول هي التي ساعدت لبنان على الدوام ودعمت جيشه وقواه الامنيه واستثمر اولادها  وصناديقها في وطننا، وانتدبت ضباطها وجنودها الى قوات الطوارىء […]

By Maha El Dahan and Alaa Kanaan BEIRUT (Reuters) – Ibrahim Jaber was laid off when the fast food restaurant where he worked as a chef in Beirut shut down. Unable to find another job, he had to take his daughter out of school to put food on the table at home. Inflation forces tough choices on Lebanese Inflation forces tough choices on LebaneseNOW PLAYING Lebanese activists lead beach clean-up and swim Rage after Texas law restricts abortions, as Supreme Court remains mum on Roe v. Wade | September 5 White House has given no indication Biden plans change in Aug 31 pullout – source Explosion near Kabul airport: “It was quite expected since day one” He is one of many Lebanese who have found themselves facing staggering inflation just as their employers, also hit by the country’s spiralling financial crisis, cut back or close. “I will not register my daughter in school, I can’t afford it,” Jaber said. “The owners (of the restaurant) used to give us a fund for school, now we don’t get it.” Those who kept their jobs have seen the real value of their salaries dramatically reduced as the currency has lost around 90% of its value against the dollar in the past two years. “I would rather work anywhere in the world, even just picking up garbage, than stay in this country,” Jaber said.

Experts are warning of hyperinflation if Lebanon’s deeply divided politicians do not form a government soon to tackle a financial crisis which began in 2019 and threatens to destabilise a country torn by civil war in 1975-90. The World Food Programme (WFP) says food inflation has risen by as much as 557% since Oct. 2019. “We are talking one in five people or families struggling to put food on the table,” WFP spokeswoman Rasha Abou Dargham said. Many families she visits on a regular basis are choosing to skip meals to feed their children while others are relying on the goodwill of nearby bakeries to send them free food every once in a while in order to cope. With the cost of living rising steeply, the caretaker government has promised employees various bonuses, including an increase in their transport allowance by 16,000 Lebanese pounds a day, less than a dollar at the current market rate.