Senior U.S. Army Commander Concludes Visit to Lebanon

U.S. Army Central (ARCENT) Deputy Commander Major General Terrence J. McKenrick has concluded his visit to Lebanon, the U.S. embassy said on Thursday. During his visit, he met with Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) Commander General Joseph Aoun and other senior LAF officials, accompanied by U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Elizabeth H. Richard. In his meetings, McKenrick renewed “the U.S. government’s commitment to the Lebanese-American partnership and support to the LAF in their capacity as the sole defender of Lebanon,” the embassy said in a statement. It added: “As recently stated at the Rome Conference in support of Lebanese state security institutions, this year, the United States will complete the delivery of six A-29 Super Tucano aircraft and 32 Bradley Fighting Vehicles, which are part of $340 million in assistance to improve the LAF’s capability in the air and to build its modern, mechanized maneuver capability on the ground.” Source: News Now | Naharnet Online

Lebanon's Central Bank Governor rejects devaluation of pound

By Osama Habib, The Daily Star BEIRUT - Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh Wednesday brushed off calls for a managed devaluation of the Lebanese currency, warning that such a step would be detrimental to the national economy. “We are not considering any devaluation because we believe that it will be detrimental to confidence, detrimental to the economy and interest rates will go up much more. Any country which floated its currency had to increase the interest rates to control inflation. This [measure] will also be detrimental to social stability because of the inflation. Lebanon being a dollarized economy will not gain any competitiveness. The issue of those advocating for remedies is that they don’t realize that Lebanon is a dollarized economy,” Salameh told The Daily Star in an interview. Advocates of managed devaluation argue that this measure aims to bring the prices of national currencies close to market value without the need for the interventions of the Central Banks. Since he assumed the position of Lebanon’s Central Bank governor in August 1993, Salameh has pursued a firm monetary policy based on the intervention in the market to protect the national currency from any sharp devaluation. Before Salameh took this responsibility, the Lebanese pound deteriorated in an alarming way, triggering protests in the streets at that time. The governor also assured that Lebanon is in sound financial position, refusing any notion that the country is bankrupt. “A bankrupt country is a country that lacks liquidity to meet its obligations in terms of foreign currency. Lebanon has not defaulted on settling its debt since it was an independent country. The country has been paying its obligations in foreign currency this year and we have ample assets in foreign currency to meet our obligations for the coming years,” Salameh said. Citing an example, he said that the balance of payments in the first two months of this year was in positive territory. “Usually the first two month of the year are not great historically for the balance of payments. We can see also a growth in deposits the foreign assets of BDL were rising. These are clear signs that we are not only not bankrupt but also there is no preceding sign of a crisis in the country,” Salameh stressed.

The governor emphasized that one of the best ways to reduce the Central Bank’s intervention in the market is to cut the government’s deficit to GDP ratio to reasonable levels. “The Central Bank has been carrying the cost of the high deficit by the subsequent governments. The Central Bank had to manage all this excessive liquidity and retrieve from the market at a cost. But if the government managed to reduce the deficit to GDP ratio which currently stands at 10 percent then BDL’s intervention in the market will be much less,” Salameh said. He added that the more the deficit to GDP is reduced the more the market can be confident of the macro stability of the country and this enables BDL to reduce its intervention. “The country was living off deficit of around $3 billion per year at a time when the GDP was around $45 billion and that has created a certain stability. If we go back to these ratios of 7 to 8 percent to GDP then the confidence will regain. One way to reduce this deficit is to have growth in the economy and this is possible if we give the private sector the proper environment for investment and consumption,” Salameh said. He added that the portion of GDP related to the public sector has grown in the past years to around 34 percent of the GDP. “This growth has not been healthy for the economy. If we look at the budget deficit over the past five years, the figure will amount to around $20 billion while the GDP of the country in this period went up only by $6 billion. The growth of deficit in the public sector is not healthy for the Lebanese economy,” Salameh said. He commended the government’s move to encourage the private sector to play a role in stimulating the economy through the Public-Private-Partnership program. Salameh reiterated that BDL has no plan in the foreseeable future to raise the interest rates on the Lebanese pound after the U.S. Federal Reserve raised the interest on the dollar by 25 basis points. “The interest rates on the Lebanese pound were raised in November of last year [following the resignation of Prime Minister Saad Hariri] and prior of the Fed’s decision to increase the interest rates. Our rates are higher by 2 percent on the Lebanese pound and this has created attraction to the pound and created new equilibrium in the market,” he added.Salameh said that following the rise in interest rates on the pound, the deposit maturity period went up from an average of 40 days to 120 days. As for the dollar rates, he said that it was up to the market to decide the levels of these rates, noting the dollar rates in Lebanon are higher than those offered in the U.S., and for this reason the banks are not likely to hike them more in the near future. In another note, the governor underlined the importance of the CEDRE conference in Paris, adding that all the soft loans for infrastructure investments in Lebanon will create good growth. He also dismissed the possibility of any new financial engineering in the near future. “The environment is different now because we have growth in deposits which we did not have in 2016. We also have good balances of payments which are relative to the conditions of the country,” Salameh said. Furthermore, he said that the Lebanese banks are well capitalized which was not the case in 2016. Copyright © 2018, The Daily Star. All rights reserved. Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info).

Cyprus to donate nearly 19 mln USD to Lebanese army

BEIRUT (Xinhua) -- Cyprus announced Wednesday the donation of more than 15 million euros (18.55 million U.S. dollars) in aid to the Lebanese army. Cypriot Foreign Minister Nikos Christodoulidis announced the donation following the meeting with his Lebanese counterpart Gebran Bassil at the Boustros Palace in Beirut, the Daily Star reported on its website. "We participated in Rome II and decided to support Lebanon via military equipment to the Lebanese army, worth over 15 million euros," Christodoulidis said following the meeting. For his part, Bassil said that Lebanon will begin exporting snails to Cyprus. "The Cypriot foreign minister informed us that the export of Lebanese snails to Cyprus has been permitted," Bassil said.

by IBNA Newsroom  -- In Beirut, the foreign minister had talks with his Lebanese counterpart, Gebran Bassil. The two ministers reviewed the whole range of bilateral relations between Cyprus and Lebanon. In particular, they discussed the cooperation between the two countries in the political, military and economic fields. The focus was also on EU - Lebanon cooperation, the Cyprus issue and the current regional developments, as well as the plans for convening a Trilateral Meeting between Cyprus, Greece and Lebanon. The minister of foreign affairs of Lebanon gave a working lunch in honour of his Cypriot counterpart. Christodoulides was received in the afternoon by the prime minister of Lebanon, Saad Hariri. The two men discussed bilateral relations between Cyprus and Lebanon, EU-Lebanon relations, developments in the Eastern Mediterranean, as well as the participation of Cyprus in the forthcoming Paris and Brussels conferences, to strengthen Lebanon and its infrastructures, as well as to address the refugee issue. Moreover, in the morning, Christodoulides attended a working breakfast to the accredited Ambassadors in the Republic of Cyprus, based in Beirut (Algeria, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Uruguay and Pakistan), with whom he discussed regional and bilateral issues and issues of special interest to these countries. During the meeting the FM briefed his interlocutors on the latest developments in the Cyprus issue. In the context of his visit to Lebanon, Christodoulides also had a meeting with Beirut Metropolitan Elias Audi, while he was guided at the "Beirut, City of Coexistence" exhibition, of the well-known Cypriot-Lebanese artists Lena and Hilda Kelekian. The Foreign Minister returns to Cyprus this evening./IBNA

Lebanon’s Group Murr to Launch Pan-Arab Newspaper

by Roger Field - businessweekme.com - The media unit of Lebanese conglomerate Group Murr is preparing to launch a pan-Arab newspaper and website this year, the company’s Group CEO, Elias El Murr, told Bloomberg Businessweek Middle East. Group Murr, which successfully relaunched Lebanese daily newspaper Al Joumhouria in 2011, is making an initial investment of about $40 million in the new pan-Arab publication and plans to hire about 300 people to work on it. The publication will also benefit from existing resources in Group Murr’s media unit in Lebanon. The publication will be headquartered in Lebanon with satellite offices in countries including Saudi Arabia, Egypt, U.A.E. and Kuwait. “In this expansion we are starting with $40 million in financing because we already have 80% of the expenses covered in Lebanon, as 70-80% of the material will be treated in Lebanon,” El Murr said. “This will make us very competitive because the operating costs are around 60-70% lower in Lebanon than in other parts of the world.”

While declining advertising revenues in print media may make Group Murr’s new business proposition look tough, El Murr believes he can make it work. “There are practically only two competitors in the pan-Arab world, so we will begin as the number three player and work to get a better place in the next few years,” he said. Furthermore, he pointed to research that estimates the value of the pan-Arab advertising market at more than $2 billion. “Even if you get just 1% it is worth $20 million; if you have 2% it’s $40 million and if you have 5% it’s more than enough to cover all of your expenses and make a profit,” El Murr said. Group Murr bought Lebanese daily Al Joumhouria in 1986 when the paper was bordering on bankruptcy and relaunched it in 2011. By 2017 Al Joumhouria was ranked by IPSOS as the number one newspaper by readership in Lebanon.

Estonia lauds Lebanon for hosting Syrian refugees

BEIRUT, March 28 (Xinhua) -- Visiting Estonian Prime Minister Juri Ratas lauded Lebanon on Wednesday for hosting the Syrian refugees, the National News Agency (NNA) reported. According to NNA, Ratas held separate talks Wednesday with President Michel Aoun and Prime Minister Saad Hariri. Speaking to reporters from the Grand Serail, Ratas said his country fully supports Lebanon's security, stability and sovereignty. The visiting premier lauded Lebanon's hosting of Syrian refugees and its efforts in this regard, revealing that he invited Hariri to visit Estonia. Describing his visit to Lebanon as good, fruitful and interesting, Ratas hoped "to see improvement in the ties between the two countries, especially in the economic field." The Estonian premier had on Tuesday inspected his country's troops who are serving within the UNIFIL peacekeeping force and also visited the UN-demarcated Blue Line on Lebanon's border with Israel.

North Korean leader was in delegation visiting Beijing: source

Ben Blanchard, Shu Zhang, Christine Kim BEIJING/SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was part of a secretive delegation that arrived in Beijing by train on Monday and left on Tuesday, according to a source familiar with the matter and foreign media reports. The visit, which would be Kim’s first known journey abroad since he assumed power in 2011, was not announced by North Korea or China and has remained shrouded in mystery. South Korea’s left-leaning Hankyoreh newspaper reported that Kim had traveled to Beijing for meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday afternoon before leaving for a “third location”, which could be in China, on Tuesday. It did not cite specific sources. The conservative South Korean Chosun Ilbo newspaper, citing an unnamed senior intelligence official, said the delegation had included Kim, and that he had left to return to North Korea. Kim is due to hold separate summits with China’s rivals, South Korea and the United States, and analysts say a visit to Beijing could be preparation for those. Beijing has traditionally been the closest ally of secretive and isolated North Korea, but ties have been frayed by North Korea’s pursuit of nuclear weapons and China’s backing of tough U.N. sanctions in response.

A Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman deflected a question on whether Kim, his sister or some other senior North Korean was visiting. “At present I have no understanding of the situation you mention. If there is news we will release it,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a regular daily briefing. Diplomatic sources in Beijing said a senior North Korean official was in town, but they did not know exactly who. U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said it “kinda looked like” Kim went to Beijing, but told reporters at the Pentagon, “I don’t know.” A senior U.S. official who follows North Korea closely said the available evidence suggested Kim had gone to meet Xi, but stressed that has not been confirmed.

U.S. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said China had not confirmed who had visited, but added, “there certainly was a lot of fanfare ... a lot of protocol.” “We look forward to hearing about it and we’ll leave it for the Chinese to announce who was visiting,” she told a regular news briefing, adding that the United States was continuing with its plans for a summit with Kim by the end of May. A Reuters reporter saw a convoy leave Beijing’s Diaoyutai State Guest House, where senior foreign leaders often stay, and drive north on Tuesday morning. It was unclear where the convoy was headed. Later, a Reuters journalist saw what was believed to be the delegation’s train pulling out of a Beijing station. The group was reported to have arrived in China on Sunday after crossing from North Korea at the border city of Dandong. One source with ties to China’s leadership said earlier it was possible the visitor was Kim’s younger sister, Kim Yo Jong. She visited South Korea during the Winter Olympics last month, paving the way for a summit between the two Koreas. The U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said it was unlikely Kim Jong Un would have again sent his sister given the importance of a meeting with Xi, which would underscore Kim’s standing as a world leader. South Korean news agency Newsis reported that Kim Yo Jong and the North’s ceremonial leader, Kim Yong Nam, were visiting Beijing, citing an unidentified North Korea-related source in the Chinese capital.

“LOT OF LEVERAGE”

The U.S. official said Xi and Kim Jong Un had reason to meet in advance of Kim’s meetings with South Korean President Moon Jae-in in April and possibly U.S. President Donald Trump in May. “Xi has met Trump, and in many respects learned how to deal with him better than some people here do,” the official said. “At the same time, despite the recent tensions, he needs to know what Kim has in mind for dealing with the South and the U.S., and he still has a lot of leverage with the North.” A senior South Korean official said improving ties between North Korea and China would be a positive sign before the planned summits. In Geneva, meanwhile, North and South Korean members of parliament shook hands and shared a toast to “peace” on Tuesday, a Reuters witness said, suggesting relations between their two countries are thawing. South Korean politician Young Chin shook hands with Ri Jong Hyok, director of North Korea’s National Reunification Institute and deputy head of its Supreme People’s Assembly, at the annual assembly in Geneva of the Inter-Parliamentary Union.