Lebanon: No coordination with Syrian army in the war against ISIS

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Reuters - The Lebanese army will not coordinate with the Syrian army to fight against ISIS in the Lebanese-Syrian border zone, a military source told Reuters on Saturday, rejecting a local media report of direct military cooperation between the two. The source said the Lebanese army had the military capability to confront and defeat the group without any regional or international support. The presence of ISIS and Nusra Front militants in pockets on Lebanon's border is the biggest military spillover into the country from Syria's civil war. An offensive launched last month by Lebanon's Hezbollah - a key ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad - forced Nusra Front militants to leave for a rebel-held area in northwest Syria under an evacuation deal. The Lebanese army did not take part in that offensive, but has been widely expected to lead an attack against the ISIS pocket. On Friday Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said an assault on ISIS militants in the border zone would begin in a few days. He said the Lebanese army would attack ISIS from the Lebanese side of the border while Hezbollah and the Syrian army would simultaneously attack from the Syrian side. Hezbollah has been fighting alongside the Syrian army against rebels including hardline Sunni Islamists in Syria. On Saturday Lebanese newspaper al-Joumhouria reported from sources that direct military coordination had occurred between the Syrian and Lebanese armies regarding the upcoming offensive against ISIS. The military source said the Lebanese army had been attacking ISIS for some time, by preventing it spreading further and cutting supply routes. Lebanese state news agency NNA and a Hezbollah media unit said on Saturday the Lebanese army had shelled ISIS positions in the Ras Baalbek and al-Qaa areas of northeast Lebanon. Last Update: Saturday, 5 August 2017 KSA 15:56 - GMT 12:56

Cyclists get a bumpy ride in Beirut

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Al Monitor - By Florence Massena - Beirut could be considered one of the world's least bike-friendly cities due to its air pollution and traffic jams. But more and more residents are riding bikes during the day — and night. Every Thursday night, cyclists wearing helmets and reflective yellow cuffs for visibility cruise bravely on the main roads with Cycling Circle, a company that specializes in cycling projects in Lebanon. Karim Sokhn founded the company in 2012 to share his passion for cycling with others. Since then, he has organized rides in Beirut and biking trips to villages and historical sites around Lebanon. “I used to bike between my house and the university every day, and everyone looked at me strangely,” Sokhn told Al-Monitor. “Biking was either for the very rich or the very poor. The very rich who could afford expensive bikes used them for exercise, and the very poor who couldn’t afford any other way of transportation used bikes out of necessity.”

Sokhn pointed out that everyone used to bike before the Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990), but the war destroyed the country's infrastructure and also changed how people lived. “It is now a challenge to get people to bike as a way of life,” he said. He started the night rides with his friends, and more and more people who heard about the rides through word of mouth joined them. This eventually led to his starting Cycling Circle. “My goal is to promote biking as a way of transportation and create a safe and secure environment for people to have the best experience, with guides, insurance and security measures taken during the rides we organize,” Sokhn told Al-Monitor. “I also want to develop bicycle tourism in Lebanon.”

He added, “I even started a delivery service on bikes — called ‘Deghri Messengers’ — after watching the movie 'Premium Rush' about a delivery service in New York. We stopped this year, but at least it made us known and gave a positive image of the bike in Beirut.” Sokhn opened a boutique and community space last year in Badaro, a popular Beirut neighborhood. He developed new bike tours, gave biking lessons to all skill levels, held technical workshops to teach bikers how to repair their bikes and started sales of secondhand bikes. “It’s a very slow process, but we see more and people interested in bicycling,” he said.

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Hotel occupancy up, so are five-star rates

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by Rania Ghanem -businessnews.com.lb Hotels are breathing a sigh of relief after four difficult years, according to a special report about hospitality in the August issue of Lebanon Opportunities. Rami Sayess, Regional Vice President and General Manager of Four Seasons Hotel Beirut, said: “Business began improving in October 2016.” He said that if business were to continue at the same pace, profits would more than double than those achieved since operations began. Sayess said that the difference this year is the influx of French, British, Italian, German visitors, and expats living in Dubai. Saudis, followed by Kuwaitis and Qataris, are among the top Gulf nationals visiting the country. However, the length of time booked has decreased from several weeks to ten days on average.  Average occupancy rates in Beirut hotels rose 6.6 points to reach 61.1 percent in the first half of the year, according to a report on the performance of four and five star hotels by Ernst and Young. Ernst and Young reported that the average room rate increased by seven percent to reach $145. Room yield increased 19 percent to $89. The number of tourists grew 14 percent, reaching 826,000 visitors, according to the Ministry of Tourism. Fadi Kaedbey, General Manager of Ramada Plaza Beirut, said: “We increased occupancy rates by targeting a new demographic.” The hotel readjusted its tariffs to appeal to tourist groups from Egypt, Jordan, and Turkey. Occupancy rates increased to more than 60 percent last year, with a better room yield. To compensate for the fall in pure touristic activity, hotels are implementing other strategies such as creating additional food and beverage outlets, and targeting the conference and meeting (MICE) business.

Here's how much activity happens in just one minute on the internet

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Last al-Nusra Front Militants in Lebanese Camps Cross Back Into Syria

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BEIRUT (Sputnik) — Buses with Syrian militants and their families who were staying in Lebanese refugee camps crossed back into Syria late on Wednesday, sources with Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement told Sputnik. Members of Jabhat Fatah al Sham terror group, formerly known as al-Nusra Front were granted safe passage to Syria through the mountainous Aarsal region on the Lebanese-Syrian border as part of a pact to free Hezbollah prisoners. "The expulsion of Nusra militants, their relatives and those willing to follow them is over. A total of 116 buses have departed," the source said, adding this number included vehicles with health aid workers. A source in the Lebanese militant movement told Sputnik earlier that a total of 7,777 people – fighters and others – were to leave Lebanese territory under the arrangement. The withdrawal followed Hezbollah’s recent gains in fighting against Syrian militants in Aarsal, a major arms and gunmen smuggling hub. Islamists have also been using Syrian refugee camps there as hideouts and recruitment grounds.

Why the Middle East hated Obama but loves Trump

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By Susan B. Glasser, Article represents opinion of the author and does not represent khazen.org

Russia won in Syria thanks to President Barack Obama’s inaction. The Middle East unraveling of the past decade is due in no small part to America not listening to her allies in the region. Never mind President Donald Trump’s Muslim-bashing rhetoric, he may just be a better partner. For months, leaders of America’s Arab allies in the Mideast have telegraphed this view of the world, and it helps explain why the gilded palaces of the troubled, war-torn region are the few places on the planet — outside Russia — where Trump has been more popular than the president he succeeded.This is the case Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri laid out in an exclusive interview for The Global Politico at the end of a weeklong visit to Washington. The tone was measured, but taken together his comments amount to a striking and stark indictment of Obama and much recent U.S. policy in the Middle East. “The unfortunate consequence of not acting” there, Hariri argued, has been Russia’s restoration as a regional heavyweight, the resurrection of Bashar Assad’s bloody regime in Syria and the failure to produce an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal.

“Clarity,” the prime minister said, and the hope for a more decisive approach is the reason why he and other Arab leaders prefer Trump, despite the bombast and uncertainty the first six months of his presidency have unleashed. Unstated, but by all accounts just as significant, is the expectation that Trump will take a more hawkish approach toward Syria’s backers in Iran, and Hariri repeatedly brought up concessions Obama made toward Tehran to get his nuclear deal as an example of how the U.S. lost its way in the region. Given the bloody six-year war in next-door Syria that has come close to overwhelming tiny Lebanon, sending a flood of 1.5 million refugees into a fragile nation of just 4.5 million people and putting the terrorist group ISIS right on their border, it’s a case worth listening to — even if you think it absolves the Arab world of accountability for its own actions.

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