By Najia Houssari -- arabnews.com -- BEIRUT: Angry citizens on Wednesday stormed bakeries and pastry shops in Lebanon as the country’s food crisis deepened. Long queues formed outside many stores with residents waiting impatiently in searing heat for subsidized bundles of bread. As stocks and tempers ran short, many people opted to buy other bakery products, some priced at 40,000 Lebanese pounds ($1.5) for 10 thin loaves. Others vented their frustrations by taking to social media platforms, blaming politicians and bakeries for the problem while slamming mafia organizations for selling subsidized flour on the black market and smuggling it to Syria.

In some places, soldiers were forced to intervene, removing protesters from shops, and defusing heated arguments between queueing customers. Lebanese Economy Minister Amin Salam said: “Around 49,000 tons of wheat are expected to arrive in Lebanon by the end of this week. Hopefully the ships will arrive faster. The crisis is the result of flour being stolen from our country. “A crisis cell headed by the economy ministry will be formed and a new mechanism will be set up for distributing wheat and flour fairly, and prosecuting those creating the crisis.” Lebanon’s inability to secure US dollars to continue subsidizing medicines, wheat, and fuel, on Wednesday resulted in petrol prices rising by 14,000 Lebanese pounds to reach 617,000 pounds per 20 liters.

Georges Brax, a member of the gas station owners’ syndicate, said: “The central bank used to secure 100 percent of the US dollars needed to import fuel, according to its Sayrafa platform rate. Now it provides only 85 percent. The remaining 15 percent needs to be secured based on the black-market rate.” Fadi Abu Shakra, a representative of the union for fuel distributors and gas stations in Lebanon, said: “We keep going backward. If the issue is not resolved, I don’t know where we could be heading.” At its Wednesday meeting, a ministerial committee set up to address the repercussions of the financial crisis on public facilities and headed by caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, reiterated its previous recommendations to meet the demands of public sector employees, who have been on strike for more than a month, pending the approval of the 2022 budget and avoiding any burden on the state treasury.

سجعان قزي

@AzziSejean

كان يَنقُصُ غِبطةَ البطريرك بشارة الراعي أن يُحدِّدَ له بعضُ السياسيّين الوارثَي النعمة، والأحزابِ الحديثي العهد طبيعةَ علاقتِه بأبرشيّاتِه ودورِها. إذا بُلِيتُم بالجُبنِ فاسْتتِروا. الكمينُ الذي تَعرّضَ له المطران موسى الحاجّ ليس حادثًا بسيطًا وبريئًا. لم يُفتعَل لكي يُحَلَّ سريعًا. ولن يُحلَّ ذاتَ يومٍ من دون آثارٍ جانبيّةٍ وأضرار. والبطريركيةُ المارونيّةُ ليست قاضي تحقيقٍ لكي تُحدِّدَ المسؤوليّةَ الإسميّةَ عن نَصبِ الكمين. توجدُ مجموعةٌ حاكمةٌ بالتكافلِ والتضامنِ، أذْرعُها تَمتدُّ إلى جميعِ مفاصلِ الدولةِ ومؤسّساتِها وأجهزِتها وقُضاتِها وتَتوزَّعُ ارتكابَ الجُنحِ والجِنايات. وإذا لم تَكن هذه المجموعةُ وراءَ ما حَصلَ للمطران الحاجّ، فلتَتفضَّل وتَجِدْ حَلًّا فوريًّا للحادث وتَعتذر، وإلا تَدينُ نفسَها بنفسِها. لكن ما نَعرِفه هو أنَّ للحادثِ أبعادًا ترمي إلى التأثيرِ على مواقفِ البطريرك بشارة الراعي من عدّةِ قضايا، أبرزُها: انتخاباتُ رئاسةِ الجُمهوريّةِ، قيادةُ الجيش، حاكميّةُ مصرِف لبنان، تَسييسُ القضاء، سلاحُ حزبِ الله، مفاوضاتُ الطاقةِ مع إسرائيل، إلخ...

لا نَستَهْوِلنَّ هذه الروابط، فعلى وَقعِ هذا الكمينِ المدَبَّر، يريدُ البعضُ إسكاتَ صوت المعارَضة، وتحقيقَ أهدافٍ عدّةٍ في توقيتٍ محليٍّ وإقليميٍّ ودُوَليٍّ مليءٍ بالمفاجآت والتحوّلات. ولقد تَقصّدَ مُفتعِلو الحادثِ ربطَ مصدرِ المساعداتِ الماليّةِ والطِبيّةِ بواقعِ القطيعةِ مع إسرائيل لإحراجِ أطرافٍ سياسيّةٍ، فتُحجِمُ عن التضامنِ مع بكركي والمطران. هكذا، رأينا قياداتٍ مختلِفةً تلتزمُ الصمتَ، وأخرى تَتبرّأُ وتُزايِدُ، وأُخْرى تُسقِطُ حقَّها من المساعدات الآتيةِ إليها من أنسبائِها في إسرائيل.

By Joseph Haboush, Al Arabiya English -- As Lebanese soldiers communicated during a counterterrorism simulation, American troops stood on a hilltop in northern Lebanon to observe an operation that marked the culmination of a two-week training exercise. Around 60 US personnel from the Navy, Marines, Army and Coast Guard participated in Resolution Union 2022, an annual exercise between the two armies focused on maritime security operations, mine countermeasures and explosive ordnance disposal. The live-fire event saw various branches of the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) integrate air, naval, and ground capabilities during the operation.

Three separate operations were carried out in the exercise: long-range fire on hostile and terrorist targets using various tanks; closing in on a building housing a senior terrorist leader using ground and air support; chasing down a boat that was believed to have been used for the terrorist leader to escape the raided building; visit, board, search, and seizure (VBSS) of a ship used for smuggling; a rescue operation of injured personnel on board the vessel during the VBSS; and helicopter missile fire at a target on land. “This is a pretty sophisticated performance,” one senior US military member told Al Arabiya English. “This takes a high level of professionalism and education.” The military official, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak, lauded the LAF as being “one of the more advanced armies in the region.” The US military is one of the top in the world in integrating different attack and defense methods. Now they are trying to help other countries do the same to counter drug trafficking and terrorism while working to integrate the air defense systems of more advanced militaries in the region.

Since 2006, the US has invested over $2.5 billion in the LAF, which has used this training and weaponry provided by Washington to defeat an extremist militant organization in the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp in 2007 and become one of the first armies in the region to push ISIS entirely out of it borders in 2017. But there have been mounting concerns over the LAF’s ability to decide between war and peace, which the Iran-backed Hezbollah arguably has complete control over. Nevertheless, US support has continued to bolster the LAF and this has been observed as recently as this month when American lawmakers agreed to reroute US taxpayer funds to include “livelihood support” for Lebanese soldiers.