By Najia Houssari — arabnews.com — BEIRUT: People across Lebanon have been left stranded and struggling to find fuel for heating as snowstorm Yasmine continues to wreak havoc. President Michel Aoun’s media office said he had instructed the relevant authorities to provide assistance to people in affected areas and had been following the work of military, security and civil agencies as they sought to clear roads. As the storm intensified on Wednesday night, entire cities and villages in the Bekaa and northern regions were cut off, while power cuts left residents without heating. Snow fell at an altitude of 500 meters above sea level, leaving dozens of towns along the eastern and western mountain chains isolated. Most main and mountain roads at an altitude of 1,100 meters and above were completely cut off.

Snow also engulfed the runways at Beirut Airport, though did not prevent operations, and covered beaches in the northern cities of Byblos and Beirut and the southern city of Sidon. Also in Sidon, firefighters rushed to tackle a blaze after a school bus was set on fire by lightning. Along the banks of the Hasbani River in Shebaa and the neighboring villages of Arqoub the snowfall was recorded at up to a meter deep. Footage shot in some of the worst affected areas went viral on social media. In some regions the authorities issued warnings to motorists against driving as the freezing temperatures covered roads with ice. The Ministry of Public Works warned people against trying to find alternative routes around snow-blocked roads until the authorities had clarified the situation and issued guidance. The director-general of the Lebanese Civil Defense, Brig. Gen. Raymond Khattar, said the agency had responded to multiple calls from around the country, while the army said it was helping to get fuel to people in need and clear snow from roads. Meanwhile, many people have complained about not being able to buy gas or diesel to heat their homes as they have become too expensive and too scarce.

By EDUARDO CAMPOS LIMA — arabnews.com — SAO PAULO: The ongoing Lebanese socioeconomic crisis, and the devastating explosion at the Port of Beirut in August 2020, have led many Lebanese Brazilians to show greater interest in the Arab country’s affairs. Over the past couple of years, Lebanese Brazilians — whose numbers are estimated at between 3 million and 10 million — have promoted drives to assist Lebanon’s people, and have become more involved in its politics. This trend was intensified by a campaign launched in 2021 by the Lebanese Embassy in Brasilia to encourage Lebanese citizens living in Brazil to register to vote in elections scheduled for May. “Many Lebanese Brazilians know very little about Lebanon. But now I think people are more conscious and trying to be informed,” said trader Nagib Makhlouf, 69, who was born in Brazil but has Lebanese citizenship. He has already taken part in three Lebanese elections: Two in the country — he used to visit to see his mother, who lived there — and one from Brazil. “Lebanon is in such bad shape that many people in Brazil are outraged with the situation. I know a group of 10 Lebanese Jews who decided to register and vote for the first time,” Makhlouf said.

Lebanese-born Lody Brais, a community leader who helped publicize the embassy’s campaign, said more and more young Lebanese Brazilians have been manifesting their wish to get involved with Lebanon and help it overcome its crises. “The diaspora’s vote may help change Lebanese politics. People have lost confidence in politicians,” added Brais, who helped collect food and medicines to be donated to Beirut after the explosion. “Many descendants who have relatives there sent them money. Everybody was concerned for the victims.” At the time, lawyer Hanna Mtanios Hanna Jr., honorary consul of Lebanon in the Brazilian city of Goiania, received dozens of calls during his COVID-19 confinement from people who wanted to do something to help Beirut. “Grandchildren and great-grandchildren of Lebanese immigrants would call me saying they had a family connection with the country and wanted to help. Since then, their ties with Lebanon have been growing,” he said.

by NAJIA HOUSSARI — arabnews.com — BEIRUT: Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros Al-Rahi has reiterated the necessity of implementing the Taif Agreement, international resolutions and the removal of illegal weapons from Lebanon. The Taif Agreement, signed in 1989, aimed to provide “the basis for the end of the civil war and the return to political normality in Lebanon.” Al-Rahi’s points are the demands mentioned in a paper handed last week to Lebanese authorities by Kuwait’s Foreign Minister Sheikh Ahmed Nasser Al-Sabah as the conditions for rebuilding trust between the Gulf states and Lebanon, after Saudi Arabia and others severed diplomatic and economic relations with Beirut. Al-Rahi reiterated his demand for “holding an international conference, announcing Lebanon’s neutrality and finding a solution to the problem of Syrian and Palestinian refugees.”

He said he was surprised by former Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s decision to suspend his involvement in political activities and his call to the Future Movement to neither contest the upcoming parliamentary elections nor nominate anyone to run on its behalf. He told a delegation of the Union of Editors: “I was surprised by the decision and did not expect it, as Hariri is moderate and I hope it does not lead to any crack in the Lebanese structure.” Earlier, Hariri said: “There is no room for any positive opportunity for Lebanon in light of Iranian influence, international confusion, national division, the rise of sectarian tensions and the deterioration of the state.” Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri said he was “saddened by Hariri’s decision,” and the leader of the Progressive Socialist Party Walid Jumblatt said he felt “orphaned.”

by al-monitor.com — The Lebanese government announced today a new electricity deal with Syria and Jordan. Lebanon’s Water and Energy Minister Walid Fayad signed the agreement with his Syrian and Jordanian counterparts, Ghassan al-Zamel and Saleh al-Kharabsheh. The deal will send 250 megawatts of electricity from Jordan and Syria into Lebanon, the official National News […]

BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon’s economy contracted by more than 58%, the World Bank said Tuesday, warning in a report that the small country’s financial meltdown poses a threat to long-term stability and social peace. It accused Lebanese leaders of being indifferent to the nation’s economic collapse, refusing to adopt a credible recovery plan and begin implementing reforms. The World Bank’s Lebanon Economic Monitor showed the country’s gross domestic product plummeted from close to $52 billion in 2019 to a projected $21.8 billion in 2021, marking the biggest contraction of the 193 countries listed by the publication. “The scale and scope of Lebanon’s deliberate depression are leading to the disintegration of key pillars of Lebanon’s post-civil war political economy,” said the report, titled, “The Great Denial.” The meltdown began in October 2019 and has thrown more than 75% of the country’s population into poverty. The same political class blamed for the decades of corruption and mismanagement leading up to the crisis has done almost nothing to help Lebanon climb out of the crisis.

The Lebanese pound has lost more than 90% of its value and there are several exchange rates, reflecting the severity of the crisis. Banks have imposed informal capital controls, depriving people of access to their savings. Despite spending billions of dollars on infrastructure projects since the civil war ended in 1990, electricity cuts out for 22 hours a day, tap water is largely undrinkable, roads are riddled with holes, trash piles on the streets while the sewage system floods whenever there is heavy rain. The report, which analyzes the end of 2021, estimates a decline of the GDP by 10.5% percent for that year. That comes after a 21.4% contraction in 2020. It lined up with earlier reports that said the crisis is one of the world’s most severe economic collapses in modern times. Lebanon’s surging inflation, estimated to average 145% in 2021, now ranks third globally after Venezuela’s and Sudan’s, it said.

By Kareem Chehayeb — aljazeera —  Beirut, Lebanon – Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri has announced that he will suspend his involvement in political activities and will not run in upcoming parliamentary elections. The Hariri family has dominated Lebanon’s Sunni political landscape for more than three decades since the end of the country’s civil war in 1990. In Lebanon’s sectarian system, where parliamentary seats are allocated based on a sectarian quota, the vast majority of Sunni lawmakers are part of Hariri’s Future Movement party. “I’m convinced there is no room for any positive opportunities to Lebanon due to the Iranian influence, our indecisiveness with the international community, internal divisions, and sectarian divisions, I’m suspending work in political life and so is the Future Movement. And I’m not running in the elections, nor will the Future Movement,” Hariri said in a televised address on Monday. “We are staying in service of our people and nation, but our decision is to suspend any direct role or responsibility in ruling, representation, or politics in the traditional sense,” he added.

Parliamentary elections are slated for May 15, 2022. Lebanese will head to the polls for the first time since a countrywide popular uprising in late 2019, and the Beirut Port blast in August 2020 that killed more than 200 people and flattened several neighbourhoods in the capital. Lebanon is also reeling from a continuing economic crisis that has slipped more than three-quarters of the population into poverty in a little more than two years. Hariri said on Monday that his goal was to prevent another Lebanese civil war amid growing tensions and to improve the wellbeing of Lebanese, and said compromises he has made with political adversaries to prevent war has weakened his ability to improve the economy. “These agreements came at my expense, and could be the reason of my inability to make life better for the Lebanese. History will be the judge of that,” he said, citing loss of personal wealth, local and regional allies.

إنّ احجام أي طائفة عن المشاركة في الانتخابات النيابية، ترشيحاً او اقتراعًا، او تدني نسبة مشاركتها بشكل ملحوظ، ليس فشلًا للديمقراطية فحسب بل وأيضًا هو تشويهٌ لصيغة العيش الواحِد المشترك. فلا يظنن احدٌ أنّ الخسارة تلحق بالطائفة المعنية فقط بل بالتأكيد بكل الطوائف والمكوّنات، شأن الخسارة التي تكبدها لبنان عام ٩٢ حين قاطع المسيحيّون بمعظمهم […]

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Lebanon is suffering an economic meltdown that began in 2019 when the financial system collapsed under colossal state debts and the unsustainable way they were funded, while politicians have yet to come up with a rescue plan.

Just how bad is the situation?

– Gross domestic product has plunged to an estimated $20.5 billion in 2021 from about $55 billion in 2018, the kind of contraction usually associated with wars, the World Bank says, ranking the collapse as one of the worst globally since the mid-19th century.

– The Lebanese pound has lost more than 90% of its value, driving up the cost of almost everything in a country reliant on imports, and demolishing purchasing power. A soldier’s monthly wage, once the equivalent of $900, is now worth about $50.

– Poverty rates are sky-rocketing in the population of about 6.5 million, with around 80% of people classed as poor, the U.N. agency ESCWA says. The situation is worsening. In September, more than half of families had at least one child who skipped a meal, UNICEF has said, compared with just over a third in April.

By STEVEN GANOT — themedialine.org — The Nabu Museum in northern Lebanon returned five Roman antiquities to Syria on Thursday, after they had been on display since 2018. Art collector Jawad Adra had bought the pieces, including limestone statues and carved funerary stones dating back to the second and third centuries CE, from a European […]

BEIRUT (Reuters) -Kuwait’s foreign minister said on Sunday Lebanon must not be a platform for hostile acts or words toward Gulf Arab states, an indirect call for curbs on the Iran-backed group Hezbollah in order to improve strained ties. Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Ahmad Nasser al-Mohammad al-Sabah spoke after meeting President Michel Aoun in Beirut, during the first visit https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/lebanons-pm-meet-kuwaiti-foreign-minister-beirut-2022-01-22 to Beirut by a senior Gulf Arab official since a diplomatic rift last year. Sheikh Ahmad said on Saturday he had delivered confidence-building proposals to Prime Minister Najib Mikati, and that his trip was coordinated with Gulf states. “We asked that Lebanon not be a platform for any aggression – verbal or actual,” Sheikh Ahmad said after meeting Aoun. “I presented ideas and thoughts … And we are awaiting a response,” he added.

Diplomatic sources told Reuters that among the 12-point proposals was that Lebanon commits to the 1989 Taif Agreement that ended Lebanon’s civil war, tightens border controls to prevent drug smuggling to the Gulf and steps up security cooperation. The Gulf initiative expressed hope that Beirut will respond by end of the month during a meeting of Arab foreign ministers in Kuwait. Lebanon’s ties have long been strained by the influence of the heavily armed Shi’ite group Hezbollah, and were plunged into a new crisis in October by comments from a former Lebanese minister criticizing Saudi-led forces fighting the Iran-aligned Houthi movement in Yemen. Kuwait was one of several members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), including Saudi Arabia, that responded to George Kordahi’s remarks by expelling the Lebanese ambassador and recalling its envoy to Beirut.