By Kareem Chehayeb — middleeasteye.net — The threat that Lebanon’s protest movement would be co-opted by the country’s political elite has loomed large for Lebanese since demonstrations first broke out in October. Those concerns appeared realised on Saturday, as a controversial protest in Beirut’s Martyrs’ Square saw supporters of the Kataeb and Lebanese Forces parties facing off against those of Hezbollah and the Amal Movement. Among the crowd, however, were supporters of a man who wears one of the most prominent names in Lebanon, but who has been noticeably absent from the political scene for years: Bahaa Hariri. As the older brother to Saad Hariri, former prime minister and head of the predominantly Sunni Future Movement, Bahaa has kept out of politics almost entirely since the assassination of his father Rafik Hariri in 2005. Since February, however, the construction business magnate has hinted at an interest in returning to politics through the support of a youth forum led by a former member of his family’s party. His return to visibility raises questions about his relationship with Saad, the younger Hariri’s place as Lebanon’s most prominent Sunni politician, and where the loyalties of Saudi Arabia and the UAE lie.

Expanding influence Founded in April 2018, the Beirut-based Political Economic Social Forum is self-described as a collective of civil society actors, creating a space for Lebanese youth to discuss pressing issues and policy-based solutions. The project was founded by Nabil el-Halabi, a lawyer and former member of the Saudi Arabia-backed Future Movement, who also heads the Lebanese Institute for Democracy and Human Rights, a group that has focused heavily on abuses towards Syrian refugees and Islamists. However, over the past year the forum has expanded, with offices opening in Tripoli, Akkar, Sidon, and other Lebanese governorates. El-Halabi said that this came with the support of Hariri, someone he says he has known for over a decade. “He isolated himself from political talk and public affairs,” El-Halabi told local television station Al-Jadeed. “Now he has a vision for Lebanon… [but] he has no interest in becoming prime minister … I can confirm that.” El-Halabi has since been acting as a de facto spokesperson for Bahaa Hariri on Lebanese media. On 10 May, he announced that Hariri would be launching his own television station within the next two months.

BEIRUT, June 12 (Xinhua) — The Central Bank of Lebanon will inject U.S. dollars into the licensed exchange market in order to meet needs of ordinary citizens and importers, the National News Agency reported on Friday. The announcement was made by Vice President of the Syndicate of Money Changers in Lebanon Mahmoud Halawi following an […]

BEIRUT (AP) — Hundreds of Lebanese poured into the streets to protest the tumbling of the national currency to a new low against the dollar Thursday, blocking roads and highways in several places across the small country that had started slowly opening up after months of coronavirus restrictions. In Beirut and other cities, protesters burned tires and wood and chanted against government officials to protest the economic crisis while waving the Lebanese flags. Shortly after midnight, growing numbers of protesters advanced in central Beirut pelting police and soldiers with rocks, while drawing volleys of tear gas. Some protesters threw stones at offices of private banks in an expression of anger at their perceived role in deepening their economic malaise.

Prime Minister Hassan Diab cancelled his scheduled meetings for Friday and called for an emergency session to discuss the financial crisis. The governor of the central bank urged foreign exchange bureaus to stick to the rate he had ordered. Despite efforts to control the currency depreciation in recent weeks, the Lebanese pound tumbled to more than 6,000 to the dollar on Thursday, down from 4,000 on the black market in recent days. The pound had maintained a fixed rate of 1,500 to the dollar for nearly 30 years. The crash appeared to reflect the growing shortage of foreign currency on the market amid the crisis . It also signaled panic over new U.S. sanctions that will affect neighboring Syria in the coming days as well as lack of trust in the government’s management of the crisis. The heavily indebted Lebanese government has been in talks for weeks with the International Monetary Fund after it asked for a financial rescue plan but there are no signs of an imminent deal.

by arabnews.com — BEIRUT: Protesters again took to the streets of Beirut on Thursday night, after it was reported on social media that the dollar exchange rate had plummeted to 7,000 Lebanese pounds from about 4,500 a day earlier. This rate offered by dealers is almost five times the official exchange rate, which is pegged at 1507.5 pounds. However, the currency has lost more than 60 percent of its value since October amid the nation’s financial crisis and a wave of street protests sparked by the deteriorating financial situation and political corruption. The protesters were joined by supporters of the Amal Movement and Hezbollah, who had previously been attacking them. The doors of the Central Bank on Hamra Street in Beirut were set on fire after demonstrators, chanting slogans denouncing banking policy, breached a security zone set up by the army and security forces. There were also attempts to storm the bank’s branches in a number of regions. Elsewhere, roads were blocked in several areas, including a southern suburb of Beirut that is considered a Hezbollah stronghold. Protesters also voiced their anger at rising levels of hunger caused by the financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic, and called for national unity and the rejection of sectarianism. Many demonstrators said they were hungry and could no longer afford to feed their children, as the value of their salaries had fallen below $50.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Lebanese cut roadways with burning tyres and rubbish bins across Beirut and other cities on Thursday in renewed protests sparked by a rapid fall in the pound currency and mounting economic hardship. The pound slid to about 5,000 to the dollar on Thursday and has lost 70% of its value since October, when Lebanon descended into a financial crisis seen as the biggest threat to stability since the 1975-90 civil war. From the northern city of Tripoli to the southern city of Sidon, Lebanese chanted against the political elite and set fire to major roadways across the country in the most widespread unrest since a coronavirus lockdown imposed in mid-March. “We can’t afford to eat or pay rent or anything like that, so we will stay here until the dollar rate goes down and we get all our demands,” said Manal, a protester in central Beirut.

by naharnet — Cabinet on Wednesday approved important administrative and financial appointments amid the boycott of Marada Movement’s two ministers Lamia Yammine and Michel Najjar. Wassim Mansouri, Salim Chahine, Bashir Yaqzan and Alexander Moradian were named as deputies for the central bank governor, as Maya Dabbagh was named head of the central bank’s Banking Control Commission and Kamel Wazni, Joseph Haddad, Marwan Mikhail and Adel Dreiq were appointed as its members. Christelle Wakim was meanwhile named state commissioner to the central bank as Shadi Hanna was named as a member of the central bank’s Special Investigation Commission and Wajeb Ali Qansou, Fouad Choucair and Walid Qaderi were appointed as members of the Capital Markets Authority.

As for the administrative appointments, Cabinet named Marwan Abboud as Beirut Governor, Pauline Dib as Jbeil-Keserwan Governor, Mohammed Abu Haidar as director general of the Economy Ministry, Ghassan Noureddine as Director General of Investment at the Energy Ministry, Nisrine Mashmoushi as head of the Civil Service Council, Jeryes Berbari as Director General of the Directorate General of Cereals and Sugar Beet at the Economy Ministry. The long-awaited appointments had been the subject of controversy and disagreements for several months, especially those related to the governors and the deputies of the central bank governor. “The approach of the distribution of shares, which was the norm over the past years, is no longer valid today and we believe in the inevitability of abandoning it,” Marada sources told MTV earlier on Wednesday. “There is a need to move to a transparent mechanism for appointments that would be exclusively based on competence and skill,” the sources added. “We received more than one offer over the past two days, but we rejected them in line with our previous stances,” the sources went on to say, warning that “these appointments will destroy what’s left of the spirit of this state.” “We won’t be partners in this or witnesses,” the sources added.

by al-monitor.com — Hanan Hamdan — BEIRUT — There have been widespread reports recently about the Lebanese government’s desire to restructure the banking sector. Minister of Finance Ghazi Wazni said May 15, “The government is seeking to reduce the number of banks in Lebanon — currently amounting to 49 banks — by around 50%.” Wazni’s comments came as the country entered into negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to secure financial aid in the form of loans in return for economic reforms that Lebanon is expected to enact. Prime Minister Hassan Diab announced April 30 that the government’s economic rescue plan aims at “restructuring the banking and financial sectors in order to grease the economic wheels, provide good and sustainable job opportunities, launch promising economic sectors in line with the high capabilities of the Lebanese people and protect depositors’ money.” Lebanon’s monetary and financial crisis has led thousands of Lebanese to take to the streets on Oct. 17, 2019, to protest against the deteriorating economic and living conditions plaguing the country. Since then, the Lebanese people have been queuing up in front of banks across the country to receive parts of their deposits, after banks began to impose restrictions on foreign currency withdrawals.

The protests are still ongoing albeit at a lighter pace due to the coronavirus lockdown. Meanwhile, demonstrations took place on June 6 in Beirut’s Martyrs Square. Jad Chaaban, associate professor of economics at the American University of Beirut, boiled down the current banking crisis to two main points. “First, banks lent the Lebanese state a lot of money, but the state failed to repay this money. In other words, the public sector failed to pay off its debt to the banks. The private sector and bank customers also failed to pay off their loans due to the deteriorating economic and living conditions in the country. Second, bank deposits in US dollars have declined,” he told Al-Monitor. Based on this, the government is seeking to reduce the number of banks in order to be able to weather potential challenges and meet depositors’ needs. This government’s plan has sparked debate on the mechanism that will be adopted to reduce the number of banks.

by AFP — The UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon, criticized by the United States and Israel, needs to be “more agile and mobile,” UN chief Antonio Guterres said in a report published Tuesday ahead of the mission’s renewal in August. “Standard armoured personnel carriers are not entirely suitable for crowded areas, narrow streets and mountainous terrain,” Guterres said. With lighter transport vehicles, troops would have fewer restrictions on their movement, he said. He also called for “better situational awareness” for UNIFIL. Lebanon and Israel are still technically at war, and UNIFIL usually patrols the border between the two. Set up in 1978, UNIFIL was beefed up after a months-long war in 2006 and tasked with guaranteeing a ceasefire and Israeli withdrawal from a demilitarized zone on the border. UNIFIL can have up to 10,000 troops on the ground, monitoring the truce and helping Lebanese troops secure the borders.

Guterres said the changes could come from “replacing some heavy infantry functions used for day-to-day activities with reconnaissance functions” using smaller “high-mobility light tactical vehicles and reconnaissance vehicles with improved monitoring capacity,” he noted. The shift “would result in a force sufficiently protected but with a lighter footprint, geared towards better situational awareness,” he said. That could mean more troops working in observation and surveillance missions and a reduction in the number of battalions in the zone of operations, he said. The UN head said he wanted to see construction of observation posts and for UN troops to have modern technology to collect and analyze data and improve their communications. As well as the video surveillance and sensors already deployed, Guterres called for thermal-imaging cameras, hi-tech binoculars and drones which could bolster surveillance capacity, in particular on the Blue Line separating Lebanon from Israel.

by middleeastmonitor.com — A demonstration in support of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement was cancelled in Lebanon yesterday because of sectarian clashes that took place in the country. A demonstration of Lebanese youth organizations that was scheduled in front of the American embassy in Awkar was cancelled due to sectarian clashes that took place yesterday, while the Speaker of Parliament considered that “any call promoting sedition has a Hebrew voice.” The youth demonstration that was scheduled at 11am in front of the US embassy to support US protests following George Floyd’s murder and condemn US interference in Lebanon’s internal affairs, was cancelled due to the tense security conditions. No new date was set for the protests. African-American Floyd died in Minneapolis on 25 May after a white police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes suffocating him.

by arabnews.com — NAJIA HOUSSARI — BEIRUT: A prominent member of the Lebanese engineering and construction sector has warned of dire consequences if the industry collapses. Maroun El-Helou, chairman of the Syndicate of Contractors of Public Works and Buildings, said: “The collapse, if it occurs, will directly affect 700 contracting companies, 300 consulting firms, and 15,000 engineers working in companies or as freelancers in the public and private sectors. The collapse will affect 3,000 engineering offices and subcontractors and more than 150,000 administrators, technicians, and workers, in addition to workers in all other construction-related jobs.” El-Helou warned that a collapse could lead to “an exodus of skilled and specialized manpower as well as unemployment and starvation in Lebanon.”

The accumulated amount owed to contractors, engineers and consultants by the Lebanese government is approximately $600 million. El-Helou said: “The irregular payments, plus the lack of a clear roadmap for state action in light of the exceptional conditions that Lebanon is experiencing has put all projects in limbo. This will be directly reflected by the decline of environmental, health and living conditions. The investments and projects will be lost because of the government’s lack of seriousness in dealing with the burning issues.” Most of the projects carried out by contractors under the Council for Development and Reconstruction are related to infrastructure such as roads and water. El-Helou said, “There are 18 projects under construction and we demanded the cancellation of contracts for these projects. The projects are worth about $150 million and were funded locally.

by thenational.ae — Lebanon needs urgent international help and long-demanded reforms to shield its people from their country’s worst ever economic crunch, the International Crisis Group said on Monday. “Lebanon will need emergency external assistance to ward off the worst social consequences of the crisis,” the Brussels-based think tank wrote in a new report. “The economic crisis is without precedent in the country’s history,” the ICG said.

The Mediterranean country’s economy has been in freefall since last year, partly sparking mass protests from October against an entrenched political class viewed as inept and corrupt. The local currency has plunged in value, prices have soared, and tens of thousands have lost their jobs or seen their salaries slashed – all compounded from mid-March by a coronavirus lockdown. The heavily indebted country defaulted for the first time in March. The government has since adopted an economic recovery plan and entered talks with the International Monetary Fund, seeking to unlock billions of dollars in aid. “Lebanon needs to urgently push ahead with the negotiations with the IMF, on which support from other sources also depends,” the ICG warned.