by Hannah Frasure -- intpolicydigest.org -- The failure of Lebanese politicians to reform the country’s banking secrecy law perfectly highlights how corruption fuels one of the worst financial crisis in the world. Lebanon’s ongoing economic crisis is one of the worst globally since the mid-19th century, according to the World Bank. Among Lebanese households, nine out of 10 earn less than $400 per month and less than 5% of households reported any kind of financial assistance from the government, according to a survey published in December by Human Rights Watch. The current inflation rate of 171% is at its highest since 1987 — when Lebanon’s disastrous civil war was still occurring. The banking secrecy law — which plays a role in this crisis — forbids Lebanese banks from sharing details of any bank account such as its balance or owner. Under the law, anyone can “transfer assets and financial deposits to banks anonymously and in an unregulated manner,” explains Lebanese economist Hussein Cheaito. As a result, critics accuse it of enabling financial crimes like fraud and money laundering.

Michel Aoun resigned as president in late October, which has only worsened the crisis. Since then, political division between Lebanese parliamentarians has prevented them from deciding on Aoun’s successor. Without a president, the interim government has been ineffectual in terms of carrying out any reform, let alone reforming the banking secrecy law. A briefing from the International Crisis Group warned of these consequences last year. “Such a vacuum could leave the government’s hands tied, since under Lebanon’s system the president must approve any new cabinet that forms, and the outgoing incumbent has not done so. In a void, caretaker ministers will struggle to make reforms the country needs to obtain rescue from its economic woes.”

By AFP -- BEIRUT: Cash-strapped Lebanon has scrapped a deal for a second terminal at Beirut’s international airport, the transport minister said Thursday, after critics raised transparency concerns in the $122 million project. Lebanon “will not proceed with the contract,” Public Works and Transportation Minister Ali Hamieh said on Twitter, adding that the decision came “following legal controversy.” Some had questioned how a caretaker government with limited powers could announce such a major infrastructure project, in a country where entrenched political barons are accused of systemic corruption.

Civil society organizations and lawmakers noted the absence of a tender process and a lack of involvement of the Public Procurement Authority. Jean Ellieh, head of the authority, said “the contract did not pass through” the regulatory body as required under a 2021 law. Last week 10 civil society groups, including Transparency International Lebanon, warned of “serious abuses” in the procurement law’s application which “open the door to corruption and nepotism.”

By Jessy Bains, Editor at LinkedIn News – A group of high-profile signatories, including Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Apple co-founder Steve …

by Elizabeth Hagedorn @ElizHagedorn - almonitor.com -- WASHINGTON — The Biden administration on Tuesday unveiled new sanctions aimed at curbing Syria’s production and export of Captagon, an illegal amphetamine that serves as a key source of revenue for the Syrian regime. The sanctions are the administration’s first to target Syria’s Captagon trade and also its first use of so-called Caesar Act, a law that allows for sanctions on persons or companies that do business with the Syrian government. In a statement, Secretary of State Antony Blinken vowed the United States would continue targeting Syria's drug traffickers and “those who provide support to the Syrian regime’s vicious war.”

An estimated 80% of the world’s Captagon supply is produced in Syria, where the stimulant has become the war-ridden country’s main export. The UK government, which unveiled its own sanctions in coordination with the US, described the Captagon trade as a "financial lifeline" for Assad's regime worth $57 billion. Among those designated by the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control was Khalid Qaddour, a Syrian businessman who is a close associate of Maher al-Assad, a brother of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad who heads the Fourth Division of the Syrian Arab Army. According to OFAC, Qaddour is responsible for managing the Fourth Division's revenues from facilitating the production and trafficking of Captagon. Also designated was Samer Kamal al-Assad, a cousin of the Syrian president who allegedly oversees Captagon facilities in the regime-controlled port city of Latakia in coordination with the Fourth Division and certain associates of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. Assad reportedly owns a Captagon production factory in the Qalamoun region near the Syria-Lebanon border.