By Bassam Zacca — arabnews.com — BEIRUT: As Lebanon is increasingly plagued by power outages as a result of the fuel crisis in the country, the blackouts are affecting all sections of society. Status and official standing offer little protection, with politicians and foreign diplomats just as vulnerable as residents and business owners. On Friday morning, two of the nation’s main power plants stopped working completely because of a lack of fuel. This had a knock-on effect on water supplies, as pumping stations cannot operate without electricity or fuel for back-up generators. Since Thursday, power supplies have failed across Bekaa, Tripoli, Saida, Sour, Nabateyye, Baabda, Mount Lebanon and Beirut, with blackouts now affecting more than 90 percent of the country. One of the people feeling the effects was Takeshi Okubo, the Japanese ambassador to Lebanon, who wrote on social media about his fears for the effects of the electricity crisis on healthcare. “Electric power supply is down at my residence since early morning,” he said in a message posted on Twitter. “I was told no prospect of resumption of power supply. My thought is with all the hospitals and clinics.” Within a short space of time his tweet had received more than 747 likes, been retweeted 133 times and attracted more than 55 replies.

Firas Abiad, the CEO and manager of Rafik Hariri University Hospital (RHUH), recently said on Twitter that the main concern at most hospitals in Lebanon now is not the threat posed by the Delta variant of the coronavirus, nor shortages of medical supplies. “The major worry now is electricity, without which medical equipment cannot work,” he wrote. “Old generators cannot continue running nonstop. When they break down, lives will be at risk.” Abiad also sent a letter to government ministers about of the dire consequences of the fuel crisis and blackouts, warning that “backup generators won’t hold up for long amid this recurring and serious crisis.” He noted, for example, that the RHUH has already been forced to switch off air coolers in non-medical wards and some other departments.

BEIRUT, (Reuters) – Lebanese Interior minister Fahmi has denied a request by the judge probing the Beirut port explosion to question a top security official, a document seen by Reuters on Friday showed, as attempts to deliver justice over the catastrophe continue to flounder. Nearly a year after the Aug. 4 explosion, which killed more than 200 people, wounded thousands and devastated swathes of the capital, many Lebanese are furious that no senior officials have been held to account. The blast was caused by a massive quantity of explosive chemicals that had been stored unsafely at the port for years. The request from Judge Tarek Bitar to question Major General Abbas Ibrahim, head of the powerful General Security agency, was rejected by caretaker interior minister Mohamed Fahmy in a letter to the justice minister.

In a statement, Ibrahim said he was subject to the law like all Lebanese, but the probe should take place “far away from narrow political considerations”. Bitar became the lead investigator into the blast after his predecessor, Judge Fadi Sawan, was removed in February following requests from two former ministers he had charged with negligence over the blast. Sawan had charged three ex-ministers and the outgoing prime minister Hassan Diab with negligence. But they refused to be questioned as suspects, accusing him of overstepping his powers. A parliamentary committee convened on Friday to study a request by Bitar for immunity to be lifted from former Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil, former Public Works Minister Ghazi Zeaiter and former Interior Minister Nohad Machnouk. After being charged, Diab said his conscience was clear, Khalil said he had no role in the blast, and Zeaiter called the charges “a blatant violation”. Machnouk has also denied any responsibility.

بعد انتهاء حرب البارد ٢٠٠٧ اوفد رئيس احدى الدول الكبرى الصديقة ضابطاً كبيراً مستشاراً لديه ليطلب اليّ الموافقة له على القيام بجولة على الدول الخليجية من اجل الحصول على مساعدات عسكرية او دعم مادي بغية تسليح وتجهيز الجيش الذي كنت اقوده في ذلك الحين. اعتذرت منه واقترحت ان تقوم لجنة من الحيش اللبناني بهذه المهمة […]

by english.aawsat.com — Sorbonne-educated Chryssoula Fayad spent nearly two decades teaching history and geography at Lebanon’s elite French schools, ultimately heading departments. Now she is a substitute teacher in Paris, part of an exodus from an education system on its knees. Fayad left behind her home and life savings in August 2020, at 50 years old. Days earlier, the hospital where her husband worked and his clinic were damaged along with swathes of Beirut when chemicals exploded at the port – the final straw. Corruption and political wrangling have cost the local currency more than 90% of its value in less than two years, propelling half the population into poverty and locking depositors like Fayad out of their bank accounts. Despite her straitened circumstances, she has no regrets. “I always say thank God that we had this chance to come here,” she said. “Unfortunately I know I made the right decision when I see how things are in Lebanon now.”

Lebanon’s educational sector, prized throughout the Middle East as a regional leader, was once ranked tenth globally by the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report. Now it is unclear how schools will manage when the new academic year starts in October. “When the crisis erupted in 2019 it took the educational sector by surprise,” Rene Karam, the head of the Association of Teachers of English (ATEL) in Lebanon, said. At the start, some private schools laid off higher-paid teachers, around 30% of staff, to save money, but as time went on many others left of their own accord, with half of the 100 teachers in his association now in Iraq, Dubai and Oman. Salaries starting at 1.5 million Lebanese pounds a month are now worth less than $90 at the street rate in a country where they used to be $1,000. “We are in a real crisis,” he told Reuters.

لدى خروجي من احتفال اطلاق الكتاب عن علاقة بكركي بالمملكة العربية السعودية سألتني مراسلة قناة اماراتية، عن السبيل لعودة السعودية الى لبنان ؟ اجبتها باختصار هو في عودة الدولة اللبنانية الى السعودية والى كل البلدان التي ينتشر فيها اللبنانيون، تماماً كما فعلت بكركي حين تواجدت على مدى مائة عام  حيث  تواجد اللبنانيون وليس في بلدان […]

Beirut (AFP) The French and US envoys to Lebanon are to visit Saudi Arabia, France’s embassy said Wednesday, an unusual move amid international pressure to lift Lebanon out of a roiling political and economic crisis. The visit Thursday comes as Lebanese battle shortages and price hikes on basic goods in what the World Bank has called one of the world’s worst economic crises since the 1850s. World powers have demanded a new government before any financial aid to the cash-strapped nation, but for around 11 months Lebanese politicians have failed to agree on a line-up. “The (French) ambassador will explain how urgent it is that Lebanese officials form a credible and effective government to work on implementing necessary reforms,” the embassy said.

The French envoy would, “with her American counterpart, express France and United States’ desire to exert pressure on those responsable for the deadlock”, it said. Last month the top diplomats of the United States, France and Saudi Arabia jointly urged Lebanon’s squabbling leaders to come together. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken held an impromptu meeting with his Saudi and French counterparts in Italy on the sidelines of talks of the Group of 20 major economies. They discussed “the need for Lebanon’s political leaders to show real leadership by implementing overdue reforms to stabilise the economy and provide the Lebanese people with much-needed relief,” Blinken wrote on Twitter. Saudi Arabia has remained largely out of the current Lebanese political crisis, in contrast with past approaches.

DUBAI,  (Reuters) – Qatar will provide the Lebanese armed forces with 70 tonnes of food a month, the Qatari state news agency QNA reported, as Lebanon seeks assistance amid its worst economic and political crisis since a 1975-1990 civil war. Lebanon’s army chief Joseph Aoun had appealed to world powers at meeting in France last month for assistance for soldiers, whose wages have plunged in value as the Lebanese pound has crashed and inflation has soared. read more Qatar’s donation was announced on Tuesday during a visit to Beirut by Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani. QNA did not give details about the food aid offered. Sheikh Mohammed urged Lebanese parties to form a new government “to achieve stability”, QNA said. Lebanese politicians have spent months wrangling without agreeing on a new government that is needed to unlock international aid.

By NAJIA HOUSSARI — arabnews.com — Ambassador Anne Grillo responded after caretaker PM Hassan Diab accused the international community of ‘punishing the Lebanese’ Crisis is due to ‘mismanagement by the successive officials, who are still making mistakes; it is not the result of an external blockade’ BEIRUT: Anne Grillo, the French ambassador to Lebanon, on Tuesday said that the blame for the crisis in the country lies squarely with a succession of ruling authorities. She was responding to comments by caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab, who accused the international community of “punishing the Lebanese and turning its back on Lebanon, while pressuring and besieging the country.” Grillo said: “The current situation in Lebanon is the result of mismanagement by the successive officials, who are still making mistakes; it is not the result of an external blockade. “The world is already helping the Lebanese and not waiting for an invitation to a meeting to help them.”

Earlier in the day Diab called the ambassadors and other representatives of diplomatic missions and international organizations to a meeting at his Grand Serail offices and delivered a speech in which he called on “the world to save Lebanon.” He said: “The severe crises experienced by the Lebanese people at various levels are pushing toward a major catastrophe whose repercussions cannot be contained. The Lebanese are facing a dark fate. The picture has become clear: Lebanon and the Lebanese are on the brink of a disaster. “The danger that threatens the Lebanese will not be limited to them. When we hit rock bottom, the repercussions will resonate outside Lebanon’s geography. No one will be able to isolate themselves from the risk of Lebanon’s collapse. “Lebanese stability is the basis for regional stability. With the presence of about 1.5 million Syrian refugees and hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees, it will be difficult to predict the consequences of Lebanon’s stability falling apart.”

كفانا صراخاً وعويلاً على الحالة التي وصلنا اليها بسبب سوء ادارتنا وخلافاتنا ومصالحنا، قليل من العجرفة والغرور وقليل من التواضع والحوار ووقف صراعاتنا والا …..الصمت هو اشرف: Et, sans daigner savoir comment il a péri, Refermant ses grands yeux, meurt sans jeter un cri. Gémir, pleurer, prier est également lâche. Fais énergiquement ta longue et […]

by middle-east-online.com — NIHA – In a village in Lebanon’s scenic Chouf Mountains, 69-year-old Chafik Mershad pulls out a massive rectangular guestbook and reads out despairingly the date when he hosted his last visitor: November 16, 2019. A month earlier, anti-government protests had exploded across the country over taxes and a deteriorating currency crisis. Amid such uncertainty, few people visited his guesthouse. Then came the coronavirus and subsequent government-imposed lockdowns. The guesthouse officially closed its doors in February 2020. A year and a half later, he still has no plans to reopen amid the country’s current financial meltdown. “Corona really affected us, but the biggest thing was the currency crisis,” Mershad said, speaking at his home above the guesthouse. “We used to offer meals for guests with Nescafe, tea, whatever they wanted for a cheap price. Now, one hamburger patty costs that much.”

The dual shocks of the pandemic and a devastating financial crisis have gutted the hospitality sector of this Mediterranean nation, known for its beaches, mountain resorts and good food. Hundreds of businesses, including guesthouses like the Mershad Guesthouse, have been forced to close. But as pandemic restrictions are being eased, the businesses that survived hope the dollars spent by visiting Lebanese expats and an increase in domestic tourism can get the wheels of the economy moving again. Currently, most hotel reservations are from Lebanese expats and some foreigners from neighboring Iraq, Egypt and Jordan. Airport arrivals are picking up: Every day for the past several weeks, the Beirut Airport has had four flights coming from Iraq, with more than 700 passengers in total, according to Jean Abboud, president of the Travel and Tourist Agents Union. Chaotic scenes have been reported at the arrivals lounge as people crowd for the obligatory PCR test.