By Timour Azhari and Tom Perry -- BEIRUT, (Reuters) - Lebanon's Bank Audi has closed more than 30 accounts belonging to UK nationals or their close relatives since a London court ordered it to transfer funds stuck in the crisis-hit banking sector to a British client, a depositors' union said. The Feb. 28 order requiring Bank Audi and its peer SGBL to transfer $4 million is the first UK ruling obliging Lebanese banks to transfer dollars out of the paralysed financial system, potentially encouraging similar claims. read more A Bank Audi official told Reuters the bank was "asking that the UK residents apply the terms applicable to anyone opening a new account: no international transfers, no cash withdrawals". "If this is not accepted, then the bank has no choice but to close the account".

More than $100 billion remains stuck in a banking system paralysed since 2019, when the economy collapsed due to decades of unsustainable state spending, corruption and waste. In the absence of formal capital controls, banks have largely blocked dollar withdrawals and transfers abroad, sparking numerous legal challenges, with mixed results. Since the UK order, Bank Audi, one of Lebanon's biggest, has told dozens of clients their accounts had been closed and a cheque issued for the balance at a notary public, lawyer Dina Abou Zour of the Depositors Union told Reuters. They were told the accounts could be reopened if they signed a form waiving the right to make international transfers or to withdraw dollars in Lebanon, and accept that a cheque was due payment of the balance. Abou Zour said the total amounts involved were in the tens of millions of dollars. Banks have already closed many dollar accounts by issuing cheques which cannot be cashed and instead change hands in the market, currently at about a quarter of their face value.

by By Abbas Al Lawati and Nadeen Ebrahim -- msn.com -- The Middle East found itself dragged into coverage of the conflict in Ukraine over the past week as journalists descended on the country to cover the biggest European war in decades. Western war reporters, more used to being deployed in Middle East conflict zones, were quick to make comparisons. Some of those comparisons went overboard, causing outrage in the Arab world. "This isn't a place, with all due respect, you know, like Iraq or Afghanistan that has seen conflict raging for decades," said CBS News foreign correspondent Charlie D'Agata, referring to Ukraine. "You know, this is a relatively civilized, relatively European... city." He later apologized.

Other news outlets poured sympathy on Ukrainian victims, with interviewees and correspondents pointing out that, unlike Middle Eastern refugees, Ukrainian victims were "white," "Christian," "middle class," "blonde" and "blue eyed." In a matter of days, hashtags, and even t-shirts, featuring the phrase "civilized" surfaced in the Middle East in protest. The media coverage prompted the New York-based Arab and Middle Eastern Journalists Association to issue a statement condemning the "pervasive mentality in Western journalism of normalizing tragedy" in places like the Middle East.

by Christopher White -- ncronline.org -- FLORENCE, ITALY — Lebanon's top Catholic leader Cardinal Bechara Rai says a much anticipated visit from Pope Francis will help keep "hope alive" after years of political and economic upheaval have brought the once bustling Middle Eastern country to the brink of collapse. But when Pope Francis arrives in the country — possibly even later this year — he will not come as "political or economic savior," says the Maronite Catholic patriarch, Cardinal Bechara Rai, but "as one man close to the people." "He knows that sometimes the human person needs someone who is close, someone who listens to them, someone who can understand their problems," Rai said during an interview on Feb. 26. "The Lebanese on the margins count on it a lot because they feel abandoned."

Rai spoke with NCR during his visit to the Italian city of Florence, where he joined mayors and religious leaders from 20 countries around the Mediterranean gathered for a five-day meeting to discuss collaboration on a range of issues facing the region, including migration, climate change and education. And the issues facing Lebanon, which has the largest percentage of Christians in the Middle East, are particularly severe: surging poverty rates and an economic meltdown, a widespread fuel shortage, and schools and hospitals facing an uncertain future to name only a few. "The best doctors and best university professors and best bankers and best nurses went elsewhere to be able to have a salary that allows them to live," said Rai, adding that the country's currency has lost much of its value and its trade opportunities with other countries have been "hemorrhaging." Rai, 82, who has led the Lebanese church since 2011, says the church has been on the front lines in responding to the mounting crises. "The church maintains its institutions, schools, universities, social centers, development centers," but despite doing all it can to help people find work, he lamented, "people manage to leave."

لا يَتوقّفُ وجهُ الشَبهِ بين لبنان وأوكرانيا على الموقعِ الجيوسياسي، بل يَمتدُّ إلى المآسي التي فَتكَت بالشعبَين وإلى روحِ المقاومةِ التي يتميّزان بها. لقد استخفّ فلاديمير بوتين بقدرةِ الشعبِ الأوكرانيِّ على الصمودِ بوجهِ جيشِه مثلما قوّاتُ الاحتلالِ العديدةُ في العقودِ الأخيرةِ استَخفَّت بعزيمةِ الشعبِ اللبنانيِّ. غَفَلَ على جميعِ هؤلاءِ أنَّ إرادةَ اللبنانيّين أقوى من قوتِّهم وقادرةٌ على الالتفافِ على موازينِ القوى. كلُّ شعبٍ أقوى من عدُّوِه إذا تَوحّدَ وقاومَ وصَمد. في لبنان، بحكمِ تَعدُّدِ الولاءاتِ والصراعِ حولَ هُوّيةِ لبنان والاختلافِ على لائحةِ الأعداء، كلُّ فريقٍ قاومَ وحيدًا عدوًّا غيرَ عدوِّ الآخَر. ورغمَ ذلك انتصَرنا مداورةً، ثمَّ بدَّدنا الانتصاراتِ بالأحقادِ والأنانيّةِ والمقايضةِ والتسوياتِ وبعدمِ توظيفِها في بناءِ دولةِ القانون. هكذا، فَقدَت الانتصاراتُ مفعولَها الوطنيَّ وانسحبَ الأعداءُ وبِتنا أعداءَ بعضِنا البعض.

في هذا السياقِ، يتأكّدُ أنَّ تجويعَ اللبنانيّين وإفقارَهم، وهم ليسوا بفقراء، خُطّةٌ مدبَّرةٌ لقتلِ روحِ المقاومةِ والكرامةِ والثورةِ فيهم ولإذلالِـهم وإخضاعِهم. تظنُّ المنظومةُ المتحكِّمةُ بالبلدِ ــــ ومَن وراءَها خارجًا ــــ أنَّ ما لم تأخُذْه بالقوّةِ ستأخُذُه بالجوع. لكنّنا نُطمِئنُها بأنّها لن تأخذَه لا بالقوّةِ ولا بالجوع. اتّكالُنا هو على أنفسِنا أوّلًا. سَبق للاتّحادِ السوفياتيِّ أن جوَّعَ شعبَ أوكرانيا عمدًا بين سنتَي 1931 و1933 بُغيةَ إخضاعِه. لجأ السوفيات إلى تنظيمِ "إبادةٍ بالمجاعة" مع أنَّ أوكرانيا غنيّةٌ زراعيًّا وخَصبةٌ بإنتاجِ القمحِ وتُدعى "أهراءاتِ" أوروبا الوسطى. آنذاك نفى ستالين التسبُّبَ بتلك المجاعةِ التي أدّت إلى موتِ نحو ثلاثةِ ملايينَ أوكرانيٍّ. لكن بعدَ سقوطِ الاتّحادِ السوفياتيِّ، نُشرِت الوثائقُ السريّةُ وتَبيّن أنَّ ستالين استغلَّ المجاعةَ الجماعيّةَ لإخضاعِ أبناءِ الريفِ الأوكرانيّ. وسنةَ 2008 بادرَ البرلمانُ الأوروبيُّ إلى إصدارِ توصيةٍ يَعتبر فيها الـــ (Holodomor)، أي "الإبادةَ بالمجاعة"، جريمةً مروِّعةً وضِدَّ الإنسانيّة.