BEIRUT, (Reuters – Laila Bassam) – Lebanese fuel prices are expected to double after the state decided on Saturday to change the exchange rate used to price petroleum products in a bid to ease crippling shortages that have brought Lebanon to a standstill. Amounting to a partial reduction in fuel subsidies, the rise will mean more hardship in a country where poverty levels have soared during a two-year-long financial meltdown that has wiped more than 90% off the value of the Lebanese pound. The decision was made at an emergency meeting attended by the president, central bank governor and other officials over a fuel crisis that has left Lebanon in chaos, paralysing basic services and sparking daily melees as people scramble for fuel. Though prices will rise, the decision did not fully lift the exchange rate for pricing fuel to the exchange rate at which the central bank will finance its import – a gap which the state will continue to finance, for now.

A statement said the central bank will open an account to for that purpose up to a maximum of $225 million until the end of September – funds the government will have to pay back in the 2022 budget. The account was to cover an “urgent and exception subsidy” for gasoline, fuel oil and cooking gas, the bank said. The fuel subsidy would only continue until the end of September, a ministerial source said. President Michel Aoun confirmed the treasury would bear the cost of the continued subsidy.

By TAREK ALI AHMED — arabnews.com — BEIRUT: “How’s your Tuesday going?” reads the caption on an Instagram post, featuring a Lebanese woman sprawled on a sun lounger beside a glistening pool, showing off her tanned legs under a bright Beirut sky. For most people in Lebanon, Tuesday was the same as any other day in recent months — hours spent waiting in line at the petrol station, queuing for subsidized food products at the supermarket, topped off by a long, sweltering night’s sleep on the balcony during yet another blackout. But a brief scroll through the feeds and stories of numerous Lebanese Instagrammers reveals a world of lavish weddings, rooftop parties at venues where a bottle costs as much as a waiter’s monthly salary, and vacation getaways to Italy and Greece. At first glance, one would think the country is doing just fine. It is not.

World Bank data shows that Lebanon’s economy contracted by 20 percent over the course of 2020, with a further 9.5 percent contraction forecast this year. This makes the country’s economic crisis one of the world’s most severe — in relative terms — since the mid-19th century. Coupled with the collapse of the Lebanese pound, which has lost more than 90 percent of its value on the black market, households that could once afford an annual vacation to Turkey or Cyprus can now barely scrape together enough to put food on the table. “I think there’s a natural need for validation, especially for people that come from societies where the value of the self and one’s worth depends highly on social perceptions,” Selma Zaki, a licensed Lebanese psychotherapist, told Arab News. “Social media gives us that attention and that validation.”

by arabnews.com — BEIRUT: A Lebanese former minister wanted for questioning over his alleged involvement in the August 2020 Beirut blast has sparked anger for requesting anti-riot police to guard his daughter’s wedding. A leaked Internal Security Forces’ (ISF) document showed Youssef Fenianos had asked for the security presence at the church where his daughter gets married on Saturday in case of political demonstrations. The document, published by VDL (Voice of Lebanon) news website, said the ISF agreed to dispatch two anti-riot units to Fenianos’s hometown of Ehden in northern Lebanon. The request provoked fury in Lebanon because Fenianos is being investigated over the explosion last year that killed more than 200 people. There is also widespread anger at the ruling class, which is seen as corrupt and responsible for the country’s economic collapse.

Lebanon is now crippled by widespread power black outs and fuel shortages. Fenianos was accused on social media of disrespecting the blast victims’ families and using his political influence to protect the wedding from protests. The massive explosion took place when 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate was detonated by a fire at Beirut Port. The chemical had been stored at the site for more than seven years without proper safety precautions. Fenianos, a former public works and transportation minister, was one of three MPs and former ministers charged by the blast’s investigating judge Tarek Bitar.

By AP: Hours after Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah announced that a ship carrying diesel from Iran to Lebanon would arrive within hours, President Michel Aoun’s office announced that U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Dorothy Shea told him the United States would help Lebanon get electricity from Jordan and facilitate the flow of Egyptian gas through Jordan […]

BEIRUT (Reuters) – An Iranian fuel shipment arranged by Hezbollah for Lebanon will set sail on Thursday, the Shi’ite group said, cautioning its U.S. and Israeli foes against any moves to halt the consignment that it said aimed to ease an acute fuel crisis. Hezbollah’s opponents in Lebanon warned the move could have dire consequences. Sunni politician Saad al-Hariri, a former prime minister, said it risked sanctions being imposed on a country whose economy has been in meltdown for nearly two years. Israeli military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Amnon Shefler declined to comment on whether Israel would take any military action to stop the shipment, but called it part of an Iranian scheme to export its revolution and promote its proxies. The arrival of the Iranian fuel oil would mark a new phase in the financial crisis which the Lebanese state and its ruling factions, including Hezbollah, have failed to tackle even as fuel has run dry and shortages have triggered deadly violence.

There was no comment from the Lebanese government on the announcement made by Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, whose heavily armed group is Lebanon’s most powerful faction. The U.S. ambassador to Lebanon, Dorothy Shea, told Al Arabiya English that Lebanon didn’t need Iranian tankers, citing “a whole bunch” of fuel ships off the coast waiting to unload. The United States was in talks with Egypt and Jordan to help find solutions to Lebanon’s fuel and energy needs, she said, speaking hours after Hezbollah’s announcement. Marking the biggest threat to Lebanon’s stability since the 1975-90 civil war, the financial crisis has hit a crunch point, with

  كما الاحتكار والتهريب هما،  وبأي أسلوب كان، مخالفان للقوانين فكذلك أيضًا هو استيراد النفط والحاجات والمواد الاخرى بطرق غير شرعية وعلى الدولة اللبنانية والادارات المعنية التصرف وفقاً لما تمليه هذه القوانين حفاظاً على الشرعية والمصلحة اللبنانية

سجعان قزي

@AzziSejean

في مثلِ هذا اليومِ، 19 آب 1934، حَصل أدولف هتلر على نِسبةِ 88% من أصواتِ الناخبين وأعلنَ نفسَه فْيُورِر (Führer) الشعبِ الألمانيّ. النسبةُ المرتفعةُ غيرُ ديمقراطيّة؛ فكلّما ارتفعَت النِسَبُ اتّضَحَ أنَّ الشعبَ ضحيّةُ غَسْلِ دماغٍ شعبويٍّ وديماغوجيٍّ يَسوقُه إلى الخِـيارِ الجماهيريِّ الأعمى بَدلَ الخِـيارِ الفرديِّ الواعي. مآسي الشعوب تُولَدُ عمومًا من نشوةِ جماهيرِها.

قليلون قادةُ الأممِ الّذين اكتَسَحوا عواطفَ الشعبِ ولم يَكتسِحْهُم الغرور. وإذِ العظماءُ يُغطُّون غرورَهم بالإنجازاتِ العظيمةِ والمنطقِ الإيجابيّ، أصحابُ العقولِ الوسيطةِ يَستوطِنُهم الغرورُ، في أيِّ عمرٍ، فيَفيضُون غطرَسة. والغطْرسةُ تُفرِزُ شعورًا وهميًّا بالاكتفاءِ الذاتيِّ المعرِفيِّ يَجعل الزعيمَ والقائدَ والرئيسَ يَرفضُون الفكرَ والرأيَ والنصيحةَ. ورفْضُ هؤلاءِ يقودُ إلى الاستبدادِ والفشَل. وكلّما تَفاقمَ الفشلُ تَحوّلَ كوارثَ. والكوارثُ، بعضُها يــَجـُـرُّ البعضَ الآخر… نحن في قلبِ الكوارث.

لم يَصِل أحدٌ في لبنان إلى نِسبةِ 88% لا في انتخاباتٍ ولا في استطلاعاتِ رأيٍّ. ورغمَ ذلك أصاب البعضَ “الشعورُ الوهميُّ بالاكتفاءِ الذاتيِّ المعرِفيِّ”، فراحوا يَتصرّفُون على وقعِ الغرورِ المتوتِّرِ والمزاجِيِّ حتّى أصبحَت الأزمةُ اللبنانيّةُ رهينةَ الغرورِ بقدْرِ ما هي رهنُ صراعاتِ الشرق الأوسط. لا مشكلةَ حين الغرورُ يَقتل صاحبَه، المشكلةُ حين المغرورون يَقتلون شعوبَهم. لذلك، واجبُ الشعبِ أن يَستبِقَ الحكّامَ ويَقبِضَ على السلطة.

by asumetech.com — In Lebanon, fears of “time bombs” represented by petrol and diesel fuel stored in or near residential buildings are growing, days after the disaster of the explosion of a fuel tank in the village of Al-Talil in the Akkar region, which left more than 100 casualties including dead and wounded, the dead will be buried today. Lebanon has been suffering from severe fuel shortages for months, which has prompted many citizens to store gasoline or diesel in their homes or rooms and warehouses under their homes. in plastic containers e in unsafe conditions, while black market traders have been active on a higher level by stockpiling large quantities of these materials in various locations in all of Lebanon, and sometimes in populated areas, hoping to sell them at prices much higher than the official price for these subsidized materials.

After three days of intense raids, the army announced on Tuesday that it had seized more than 4 million liters of gasoline and 2.2 million liters of mazout and forced them to sell most of them on the market, after being discovered inside. of concrete, iron or plastic drums, showing the extent of the danger that threatens civilians. Atef Mansour, mayor of Burj al-Barajneh and al-Raml al-Aali, a suburb of Beirut, launched an appeal Tuesday on behalf of the population of the area, “to the security forces to speed up the emptying of the enormous quantities of fuel stored under the their homes … to avoid a repeat of the disaster of Tallil “in Akkar. “The neighborhood sleeps on the crater of a volcano, they saved it,” he added. The specialized journalist in environmental issues, Mustafa Raad, said: “Storing gasoline and diesel in homes is equivalent to hiding a time bomb among the homes of safe people, as these homes are not equipped against fire, and the rapid interaction of these materials with oxygen , which increases the rate of fire spread throughout the house and residential floors.

١٥ سنة مرت على بدء عملية انتشار الجيش في الجنوب التي انطلقت  صباح ١٧ آب ٢٠٠٦ بعد غياب قسري عن دوره الطبيعي في حماية الحدود والسيادة لمدة تفوق العقدين من الزمن. وحتى لا يعيد التاريخ نفسه وتفقد المؤسسة العسكرية هذا الدور الوطني مجدداً، يجب اقرار الاستراتيجية الدفاعية بهدف حصر  امتلاك السلاح وعناصر القوة العسكرية بيد […]

By Noemi Jabois Beirut, (EFE).- The recent worsening of the fuel crisis in Lebanon has the country’s hospitals on the ropes, given that they need fuel to supply electricity and are also facing a significant lack of medicines, medical supplies and liquidity that is threatening to cost many lives. Since Lebanon’s Central Bank announced last week the end of fuel subsidies, the already acute shortage has resulted in almost no available diesel fuel to operate electric generators at a time when public electricity service is all but non-existent. After a fuel storage facility blew up on Aug. 15 in the southern district of Akkar killing almost 30 people and injuring 79, the Lebanese Geitaoui-UMC Hospital in Beirut has received 15 of those patients, two of whom have been released and one who was transferred to Turkey by plane.

Naji J. Abi Rached, the medical director of the hospital, told EFE that among the 12 people who remain hospitalized after the blast are patients with burns on 80-100 percent of their bodies and for whom there is a “very high risk that they will not survive.” With its Burn Unit considered to be a “regional reference point,” the private hospital is fighting to deliver “costly” and “high-intensity” treatment that the patients need. Abi Rached estimated that the patients will undergo at least two months of “critical care” with “surgeries, daily monitoring, antibiotics, infusions, hydration, morphine and intubation” as part of their treatment. “The estimated cost per patient is $800 per day and the estimate of what the state will cover is about 1 million Lebanese pounds, which is only one-fifteenth the cost,” the cardiologist said, this in a country where $1 is equivalent to 20,000 pounds on the black market while the official exchange rate stands at 1,500 pounds per dollar.