Lebanon's Tourism Ministry woos Arab travelers

Upcoming television campaign seeks to reassure Gulf tourists

By Will Rasmussen

BEIRUT: Lebanon is a place where diverse religious communities mingle in harmony, enjoying long, leisurely summer evenings at open-air restaurants along charming cobbled boulevards.

That, at least, is the Tourism Ministry's message to the Gulf, to be aired in 30-second television advertisements in a new promotional campaign beginning next week.

Long focused on luring Europeans to Lebanon's beaches and mountains, the Tourism Ministry is now looking eastward, worried that news of bombings and civil strife might deter deep-pocketed Gulf Arabs from visiting Lebanon this summer.

Lebanon must face up to its economic problems

Editor's note: What follows are abridged extracts from the economic program of the Lebanese National Bloc, one of the country's opposition groups, outlining what Lebanon must do to overhaul its economy and place it on a stable platform for future investment and development. The party proposes a series of measures to reduce public debt and stimulate the economy along with plans to improve the country's education system and improve women's rights. Its proposals are a timely reminder of the many economic problems facing Lebanon, which to date few politicians have seen fit to discuss during the current election campaign.

A number of our proposals have been discussed by previous governments and others but never implemented due to the archaic nature of Lebanese politics, made worse by 30 years of Syrian domination, a situation that thwarted any post war national growth. Simply by eliminating waste, fighting corruption and implementing already approved projects, Lebanon can make an immediate change for the better. However, this will not happen unless competent and credible leaders make it happen.

Analysis: Lebanon poll unites ex-rivals

BEIRUT, Lebanon -- "It is very hard to accept. But if this is the price to protect Lebanon's unity, I will vote for the Christian Lebanese Forces candidate though it is against my heart," said Salah Haidar, a 45-year-old Druze from the Shouf Mountains.

Haidar, like many Druze and Sunni Muslims, has found it hard to accept that their leaders, in a last-minute compromise, included Christian candidates on their electoral lists. For them Christians symbolize the bloody 1975-90 civil war.

On Sunday, Druze leader Walid Jumblat announced that his eight-member list from the Shouf Mountains for the June 12 election will include George Adwan, a known member of the Lebanese Forces militia that battled Druze fighters in the "War of the Mountains" in 1983. 
     
Jumblat said Adwan's selection did not only reflect an electoral alliance with the Lebanese Forces but also "an eagerness (to preserve) the big national reconciliation" that was achieved in 2001 when Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Boutros Sfeir visited the Druze-controlled Shouf Mountains region.

Slain ex-PM's son sees opposition landslide in Lebanon polls

BEIRUT (AFP) - Saad Hariri, whose father Rafiq was assassinated in a February bomb blast that revitalized Lebanon's anti-Syrian opposition, predicted that it would win a landslide in parliamentary elections later this month.

In an interview with AFP, Hariri pledged a "white revolution against the police state which governed Lebanon during 15 years" -- a reference to Syria and its allies.

"The opposition will win between 80 and 90 seats," in the 128-member parliament in the elections due to kick off on May 29, he said.

Hariri, 35, announced on Sunday a list of 19 candidates for Beirut's three multi-member constituencies, which will be the first to go to the polls in Lebanon's phased elections.