BEIRUT, (Reuters) – By Tom Perry & Nafisa Eltahir — – President Michel Aoun said he hoped a new Lebanese government would be formed within the next couple days, as efforts to agree one were spurred on by a fuel crisis that has brought much of the country to a standstill and sparked warnings of anarchy. The steadily worsening fuel crisis has marked a crunch point in Lebanon’s two-year-long financial meltdown, with shortages of imported fuel forcing hospitals, bakeries and businesses to scale back or shut down in the last week or so. read more At least 28 people were killed over the weekend when a fuel tanker exploded as people desperate for gasoline scrambled to get a share. read more After meeting Aoun, Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati said it was still possible for a government to be formed in the next two days. The issues were being tackled one-by-one, he said, though he did not know how the last would be resolved.

Ahead of his meeting with Mikati, Aoun indicated a deal was close, saying “we are about to form a government”, specifying later it would be “within a couple days, God willing”. A senior political source told Reuters the government talks were evolving positively although some issues remained to be tackled, mainly the names of ministers. Explaining the impetus, the source added: “The whole situation is deteriorating, the whole system is collapsing.” Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the heavily armed, Iran-backed Shi’ite group Hezbollah, on Sunday urged the government to be formed in two or three days, saying this was the only way to prevent anarchy which had already begun. He also said Hezbollah would begin bringing diesel and gasoline from Iran with delivery dates to be announced soon.

ان جهنم التليل بالاضافة الى حوادث هذا الشهر الخطيرة، من خلدة الى تبادل الرسائل النارية مع العدو الى تعريض المواطن للاذلال، تكفي لتشكيل الحكومة غداً، اذا كان الامعان في الاساءة الى عدالة ٤ آب  بحجة الحصانات والى البطريرك لانه طالب بسيادة الدولة لم تف على نحو واف بالغرض الى اليوم

by reuters — ‘Nobody’s running the country’ said Lebanon’s central bank governor Riad Salameh complained on Saturday decrying the chaos and violence that are spreading right across the nation. At the American University of Beirut Medical Center, lack of electrical power risks putting 40 patients, including fifteen children, to death. The hospital is threatened with a forced shutdown as early as Monday because of shortages of fuel used to generate electricity. “This means that ventilators and other lifesaving medical devices will cease to operate. Forty adult patients and fifteen children living on respirators will die immediately,” the hospital said. The lack of fuel is due to the inability of the central bank to continue to subsidise fuel imports.

In an interview broadcast on Saturday, Riad Salameh said the government could resolve the problem quickly by passing necessary legislation. He denied he had acted alone in declaring an end to the subsidies on Wednesday, and said it was widely known that the decision was coming. The worsening fuel crisis is part of Lebanon’s wider financial meltdown. Hospitals, bakeries and many businesses are scaling back operations or shutting down as fuel runs dry. Deadly violence has flared in fuel lines, protesters have blocked roads, and fuel tankers have been hijacked this week. The American University of Beirut Medical Center said it was threatened with a forced shutdown as early as Monday because of shortages of fuel used to generate electricity. “This means that ventilators and other lifesaving medical devices will cease to operate. Forty adult patients and fifteen children living on respirators will die immediately,” the hospital said.

A man with severe burn injuries sustained in the fuel tank explosion is carried on a stretcher from a helicopter after being transported for treatment at the severe burns unit of the Geitaoui hospital in Beirut yesterday. (AFP)

by reuters — At least 28 people were killed and 79 injured when a fuel tank exploded in northern Lebanon early yesterday, the health ministry said. Military and security sources said that the army had seized a fuel storage tank hidden by black marketeers and was handing out gasoline to residents when the explosion occurred. Lebanon is suffering from a severe fuel shortage, leading to long lines at gas stations and extended blackouts. Accounts varied as to what caused the explosion, from gunfire that hit a tank of gasoline to reports that it was caused by a person who ignited a lighter.

Protesters, already angry at the economic crisis in the country, put the blame squarely on Lebanon’s politicians as they demonstrated outside the prime minister’s residency and hurled rocks at the building. “Akkar was put on fire by its deputies in parliament,” protesters sprayed on the building, referring to one of Lebanon’s poorest areas, where the explosion occurred. Abdelrahman, whose face and body was covered in gauze as he laid in Tripoli’s al-Salam hospital, was one of those in line to get gasoline. “There were hundreds gathered there, right next to the tank, and God only knows what happened to them,” he said. Witnesses said about 200 people were nearby at the time of the explosion. Army and security forces personnel were among the casualties, sources said.

دائماً عكار تدفع ضريبة الدم والانهيار الاقتصادي. يسقط لها شهداء وضحايا في الجيش، في البارد، في جرود الضنية وعرسال، في التفجيرات الارهابية، في الكوارث، في الجنوب في مواجهة العدو وعلى مساحة الوطن، في المرفاء، في الجشع للمحروقات والاحتكار والتهريب والتقصير العام وفي الانماء غير المتوازن. فقط رحمة الله بهذه البقعة العزيزة من لينان واهلها الاحباء. […]

By NAJIA HOUSSARI — arabnews.com — BEIRUT: Lebanon’s army on Saturday seized fuel from petrol pumps to curb hoarding amid crippling shortages. The country is grappling with a financial crisis and foreign currency reserves are fast depleting, while its national currency has lost more than 90 percent of its value on the black market. Traffic in Beirut and other places was low on Saturday, and security forces temporarily closed the northern Aboudiyeh Border Crossing with Syria because of a power generator malfunction. Dozens of institutions surprised their employees with a day of unplanned leave next Monday, while shops and institutions in Beirut’s center were informed they would not be supplied with electricity because of the lack of diesel.

Activists shared a video on social media showing a crowd in the town of Ali Al-Nahri, in the Bekaa Valley, protesting around Hussainia Mosque, where Hezbollah member and former minister Hussein Hajj Hassan was giving a speech. Eyewitnesses told Arab News that around 50 people objected to Hassan going up to the pulpit and speaking. “They called on him to get back, throwing insults at him and saying, ‘We are hungry.’” The MP had to leave the town, shortening his mosque speech, amid a heavy army deployment. Army intelligence on Saturday arrested four of the people who had objected to Hassan’s presence. But they were released due to popular pressure. People objecting to the arrests blocked the road between Ali Al-Nahri and the eastern village of Massa, which is a vital road for Hezbollah. This road helps the party access Syria’s Al-Shaara region, where its military posts are located. Protesters accused Hezbollah of using the town as “a road to smuggle diesel to Syria.”

Moreover, a village resident who was present during Friday’s incident faced arrest today by an unknown party. Hassan Makkhal shared his arrest from his home on Facebook. Makkhal is said to be a critic of the Hezbollah figure.

By courtney Mares — ncregister.com — BEIRUT, LEBANON — The leader of the Maronite Catholic Church received threats from Hezbollah supporters this week after calling for an end to missile launches from Lebanese territory. Bechara Boutros Cardinal Rai had called for peace, saying that Lebanon should remain neutral in regional conflicts in his Aug. 8 homily, two days after Hezbollah fired 19 rockets into Israel from southern Lebanon. Hezbollah is a Shiite Muslim political and militant group designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. government. The group has strong alliances with Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria, and with Iran in its conflicts with Sunni-majority Gulf states. Without mentioning Hezbollah by name, the Maronite Patriarch of Antioch said that it was unacceptable for “a party to make decisions on war” without the quorum of two thirds required by the country’s constitution. “We call upon the Lebanese army … to prevent the launching of missiles from Lebanese territory, not for the sake of Israel’s safety, but rather for the safety of Lebanon,” Cardinal Rai said.

Supporters of Hezbollah responded by threatening the cardinal’s life with social media posts that pictured Cardinal Rai with a noose around his neck. In a Facebook post, a person from Beirut’s south suburbs wrote in Arabic: “You don’t think we know how to hang?“ and “An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth…Initiator [Patriarch] shall bear the brunt of blame.” In Defence of Christians, a human rights organization that has sources on in Lebanon, told CNA that there have been people in the streets in predominantly Shiite areas calling Cardinal Rai a traitor and Zionist collaborator. Political leaders within Lebanon and abroad sent messages of solidarity to the Maronite patriarch after the public threats.

by rsf.org — Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemns the intimidatory methods used by certain political groups in Lebanon to try to silence journalists. The latest victim is Yumna Fawaz, who has been the target of a social media hate campaign for the past week or so by supporters of the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) and its powerful ally, Hezbollah. A freelancer who was an anchor at Lebanon’s Al Jadeed TV channel for years, Fawaz has been targeted since she posted tweets calling for Lebanese President Michel Aoun, the FPM’s founder, to be held to account for his share of the responsibility in last year’s Beirut port explosion. As well as having been subjected to a flood of insults and hate speech, she has been falsely accused of having had a role in the port explosion on the basis of one of her old TV reports circulated by the hate campaign’s participants. Filmed in 2012, it shows her visiting a site in Idlib, in northern Syria, where the Syrian opposition manufactured explosives from ammonium nitrate. As it was a warehouse containing 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate that exploded in Beirut’s port in August 2020, the video proves her involvement, her critics absurdly claim.

Fawaz told RSF she plans to file a complaint bringing defamation and insult accusations against the leaders of the political groups she believes to be behind this orchestrated smear campaign, especially the FPM and Hezbollah. She said this is not the first time she has been targeted by FPM members. Just two months ago, she was insulted and attacked by a female member of FPM, against whom she subsequently brought a complaint. She also receives threats via WhatsApp and is increasingly concerned for her safety. “We fully support Yumna Fawaz, a journalist who simply called for more transparency in a matter of the utmost interest to the Lebanese public, and we condemn the despicable methods that certain political groups in Lebanon have become accustomed to using against journalists,” said Sabrina Bennoui, the head of RSF’s Middle East desk.

By Sunniva Rose — thenationalnews.com — The outcome of the parliamentary session could have potentially replaced the judicial inquiry with a parliamentary one, much to the dismay of families of victims who believe that members of Parliament want to protect politicians under investigation. Parliament speaker Nabih Berri scheduled the session following a petition signed in late July by MPs requesting a vote that would be the first step towards establishing a special court for trying ministers and presidents. The MPs who signed the petition were members of Mr Berri’s political party, the Amal movement, as well as its close ally, Iran-backed Hezbollah, in addition to former prime minister-designate Saad Hariri’s Future Movement. The postponement of Thursday’s session “is a victory because their main objective was to set up a special tribunal for presidents and ministers which is just a way to bury decisions,” said Ibrahim Hoteit, who lost his brother, Tharwat, in the explosion on August 4, 2020. At least 214 people died.

“Parliament realised the judge is working seriously and is now trying to remove him,” said Wissam Lahham, a university professor and an expert in Lebanese constitutional law. “We don’t have a state, we have gangs who are fighting us to avoid justice,” said Mr Hoteit, a representative for a group of victims’ families. He said he suffered head, shoulder, legs and back injuries after an attack on peaceful protesters on Wednesday night. The group wanted to camp outside the Unesco palace, where Parliament meets, to pressure Mr Berri into cancelling Thursday’s session. Mr Hoteit said the attackers, who wore both civilian and military clothing, wounded at least nine people and chanted slogans in support of Mr Berri. The attack took place one kilometre away from the neighbourhood of Ain El Tineh, where Mr Berri lives. A representative of the Amal Movement did not respond to a request for comment.

By NAJIA HOUSSARI – arabnews.com — BEIRUT: Angry Lebanese blocked roads across the country on Thursday, a day after the central bank said it could no longer afford to subsidise fuel imports below the black market rate. As the economy crumbles and Lebanon’s foreign reserves dwindle, the decision has been considered a de facto lifting of fuel subsidies. Confrontations with soldiers erupted in Tripoli amid a shortage of diesel to run private generators, which are only available on the black market at double the subsidized price. Protests also erupted around the house of Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati in Tripoli. Protesters from the southern town of Sarafand stormed the Al-Zahrani power plant demanding electricity as the diesel shortage is preventing the operation of private generators. They stressed “nepotism in distributing diesel to the powerful and barely giving any to ordinary people.”

People blocked roads in the north, south and east of the country in protest against the deteriorating living conditions. Motorists were trapped in long queues outside the remaining active petrol stations, rushing to fill up before the Ministry of Energy announced new prices. The cost of petrol is expected to at least triple, according to projections by the Information International think tank. The Lebanese pound has lost more than 90 percent of its value against the dollar on the black market in less than two years. Riad Salameh, governor of Lebanon’s central bank, informed President Michel Aoun that he “is unable to continue subsidizing fuel except under a law issued by parliament allowing the use of mandatory foreign exchange investments.”