by arabnews.com -- EPHREM KOSSAIFY -- NEW YORK: Ahead of his visit to Lebanon next week, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on the country’s leaders to step up their efforts to root out corruption and promote accountability and transparency. “Lasting solutions can only come from inside Lebanon,” he said on Friday in a video message. “It is essential for leaders to put the people first and implement the reforms needed to set Lebanon back on track, including efforts to promote accountability and transparency, and root out corruption.” Guterres expressed his concern for the Lebanese people and the hardships they are facing. He praised them for their “generosity, resourcefulness and hospitality,” qualities he said he has seen first-hand during his visits to the country as head of the UN Refugee Agency.

Lebanon faces multiple crises. In addition to an ongoing financial and economic collapse, it is struggling with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and still reeling from the devastating explosion at Beirut’s port on Aug. 4 last year, which claimed more than 200 lives, injured more than 6,000, left many more homeless and cost the country up to $4.5 billion in damages. “The United Nations mourns with you,” Guterres told the Lebanese people. “Among the youngest victims were two children of UN staff members.” The explosion happened when a large amount of ammonium nitrate, stored at the port for six years without proper safety precautions, ignited. Tensions remain high in Lebanon over the investigation into the blast, and last month this spilled over into street violence that left at least six people dead. Activists and relatives of the victims say that the official inquiry is being hampered by the Lebanese political leadership in an effort to shield politicians and officials from scrutiny. “I know the Lebanese people want answers and I hear your demands for truth and justice,” Guterres said.

BEIRUT, (Reuters) - A British court ruled on Friday in favour of a Lebanese bank in a case brought by a depositor barred from transferring funds abroad because of capital controls in place since Lebanon's financial system collapsed in 2019. The court ruled that BLOM Bank could be considered to have discharged its debt to the plaintiff, Bilal Khalifeh, by issuing a cheque in Lebanon. Banks have imposed tight controls on accounts, including a de facto ban on transfers abroad and local withdrawals of dollar-denominated deposits in dollars, but the controls have been challenged in Lebanese and international courts.

Banks have sought to discharge dollar-denominated funds via banker's cheques which cannot be cashed out in dollars and are instead sold on the market at a discount of about three-quarters of their value. The ruling by London's High Court of Justice, Queens Bench Division, said BLOM Bank was under no obligation to transfer some $1.4 million in Khalifeh's savings abroad and could be considered to have discharged his account via a cheque deposited with a notary. "The debt due from the Bank was payable in Lebanon and... Mr Khalifeh had no contractual right to require the Bank to transfer funds abroad," it said.

BEIRUT, (Reuters) - Lebanon's interior minister on Wednesday ordered the deportation of non-Lebanese members of Bahrain's dissolved opposition al-Wefaq group after some of them criticised the Gulf Arab kingdom at a news conference in Beirut Lebanon became enmeshed in a major diplomatic dispute with the Gulf last month after former information minister George Kordahi criticised Saudi Arabia over the Yemen war. Bahrain' interior minister, Sheikh Rashid bin Abdullah Al Khalifa, had earlier on Wednesday called his Lebanese counterpart, Bassam Mawlawi, to tell him that events such as the Wefaq news conference, or Kordahi's comments, "harm Lebanon and its people", a statement from Bahrain's interior ministry said.

The Gulf Cooperation Council, whose leaders met on Tuesday in Riyadh, condemned the news conference held by "a terrorist organization with support from the terrorist Hezbollah" and voiced support for Bahrain in "any measures it takes to protect its security and stability". At its news conference, Wefaq released a report detailing what it said were rights abuses in Bahrain from 2019 to mid 2021. Gulf monarchies have been alarmed by the rising influence of Lebanon's armed Iranian-backed Hezbollah group. Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia and Shi'ite Iran have long battled for influence in the region, including in Lebanon, which is struggling with a deep economic crisis. Bahrain's Wefaq did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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