by al-monitor.com — Hanan Hamdan — BEIRUT — There have been widespread reports recently about the Lebanese government’s desire to restructure the banking sector. Minister of Finance Ghazi Wazni said May 15, “The government is seeking to reduce the number of banks in Lebanon — currently amounting to 49 banks — by around 50%.” Wazni’s comments came as the country entered into negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to secure financial aid in the form of loans in return for economic reforms that Lebanon is expected to enact. Prime Minister Hassan Diab announced April 30 that the government’s economic rescue plan aims at “restructuring the banking and financial sectors in order to grease the economic wheels, provide good and sustainable job opportunities, launch promising economic sectors in line with the high capabilities of the Lebanese people and protect depositors’ money.” Lebanon’s monetary and financial crisis has led thousands of Lebanese to take to the streets on Oct. 17, 2019, to protest against the deteriorating economic and living conditions plaguing the country. Since then, the Lebanese people have been queuing up in front of banks across the country to receive parts of their deposits, after banks began to impose restrictions on foreign currency withdrawals.

The protests are still ongoing albeit at a lighter pace due to the coronavirus lockdown. Meanwhile, demonstrations took place on June 6 in Beirut’s Martyrs Square. Jad Chaaban, associate professor of economics at the American University of Beirut, boiled down the current banking crisis to two main points. “First, banks lent the Lebanese state a lot of money, but the state failed to repay this money. In other words, the public sector failed to pay off its debt to the banks. The private sector and bank customers also failed to pay off their loans due to the deteriorating economic and living conditions in the country. Second, bank deposits in US dollars have declined,” he told Al-Monitor. Based on this, the government is seeking to reduce the number of banks in order to be able to weather potential challenges and meet depositors’ needs. This government’s plan has sparked debate on the mechanism that will be adopted to reduce the number of banks.

by AFP — The UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon, criticized by the United States and Israel, needs to be “more agile and mobile,” UN chief Antonio Guterres said in a report published Tuesday ahead of the mission’s renewal in August. “Standard armoured personnel carriers are not entirely suitable for crowded areas, narrow streets and mountainous terrain,” Guterres said. With lighter transport vehicles, troops would have fewer restrictions on their movement, he said. He also called for “better situational awareness” for UNIFIL. Lebanon and Israel are still technically at war, and UNIFIL usually patrols the border between the two. Set up in 1978, UNIFIL was beefed up after a months-long war in 2006 and tasked with guaranteeing a ceasefire and Israeli withdrawal from a demilitarized zone on the border. UNIFIL can have up to 10,000 troops on the ground, monitoring the truce and helping Lebanese troops secure the borders.

Guterres said the changes could come from “replacing some heavy infantry functions used for day-to-day activities with reconnaissance functions” using smaller “high-mobility light tactical vehicles and reconnaissance vehicles with improved monitoring capacity,” he noted. The shift “would result in a force sufficiently protected but with a lighter footprint, geared towards better situational awareness,” he said. That could mean more troops working in observation and surveillance missions and a reduction in the number of battalions in the zone of operations, he said. The UN head said he wanted to see construction of observation posts and for UN troops to have modern technology to collect and analyze data and improve their communications. As well as the video surveillance and sensors already deployed, Guterres called for thermal-imaging cameras, hi-tech binoculars and drones which could bolster surveillance capacity, in particular on the Blue Line separating Lebanon from Israel.

by middleeastmonitor.com — A demonstration in support of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement was cancelled in Lebanon yesterday because of sectarian clashes that took place in the country. A demonstration of Lebanese youth organizations that was scheduled in front of the American embassy in Awkar was cancelled due to sectarian clashes that took place yesterday, while the Speaker of Parliament considered that “any call promoting sedition has a Hebrew voice.” The youth demonstration that was scheduled at 11am in front of the US embassy to support US protests following George Floyd’s murder and condemn US interference in Lebanon’s internal affairs, was cancelled due to the tense security conditions. No new date was set for the protests. African-American Floyd died in Minneapolis on 25 May after a white police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes suffocating him.

by arabnews.com — NAJIA HOUSSARI — BEIRUT: A prominent member of the Lebanese engineering and construction sector has warned of dire consequences if the industry collapses. Maroun El-Helou, chairman of the Syndicate of Contractors of Public Works and Buildings, said: “The collapse, if it occurs, will directly affect 700 contracting companies, 300 consulting firms, and 15,000 engineers working in companies or as freelancers in the public and private sectors. The collapse will affect 3,000 engineering offices and subcontractors and more than 150,000 administrators, technicians, and workers, in addition to workers in all other construction-related jobs.” El-Helou warned that a collapse could lead to “an exodus of skilled and specialized manpower as well as unemployment and starvation in Lebanon.”

The accumulated amount owed to contractors, engineers and consultants by the Lebanese government is approximately $600 million. El-Helou said: “The irregular payments, plus the lack of a clear roadmap for state action in light of the exceptional conditions that Lebanon is experiencing has put all projects in limbo. This will be directly reflected by the decline of environmental, health and living conditions. The investments and projects will be lost because of the government’s lack of seriousness in dealing with the burning issues.” Most of the projects carried out by contractors under the Council for Development and Reconstruction are related to infrastructure such as roads and water. El-Helou said, “There are 18 projects under construction and we demanded the cancellation of contracts for these projects. The projects are worth about $150 million and were funded locally.

by thenational.ae — Lebanon needs urgent international help and long-demanded reforms to shield its people from their country’s worst ever economic crunch, the International Crisis Group said on Monday. “Lebanon will need emergency external assistance to ward off the worst social consequences of the crisis,” the Brussels-based think tank wrote in a new report. “The economic crisis is without precedent in the country’s history,” the ICG said.

The Mediterranean country’s economy has been in freefall since last year, partly sparking mass protests from October against an entrenched political class viewed as inept and corrupt. The local currency has plunged in value, prices have soared, and tens of thousands have lost their jobs or seen their salaries slashed – all compounded from mid-March by a coronavirus lockdown. The heavily indebted country defaulted for the first time in March. The government has since adopted an economic recovery plan and entered talks with the International Monetary Fund, seeking to unlock billions of dollars in aid. “Lebanon needs to urgently push ahead with the negotiations with the IMF, on which support from other sources also depends,” the ICG warned.

by AFP —  “No to Hezbollah, no to its weapons,” said a sign held up by Sana, a female protester from Nabatiyeh, a city in southern Lebanese, a Hezbollah stronghold. “Weapons should be only in the hands of the army,” said the 57-year-old. Supporters and opponents of Hebzollah threw stones at each other, prompting the army to intervene by forming a human chain to separate them, an AFP photographer said. Supporters of Hezbollah, which is also represented in the government and parliament, chanted: “Shi’ite, Shi’ite.” Security forces also fired teargas near a street leading into the parliament building behind Martyrs Square, after some demonstrators pelted them with stones and ransacked shops in the area.

by aljazeera.com — by Timour Azhari — Beirut, Lebanon – Thousands of anti-government protesters filled a main square in downtown Beirut to voice their discontent at the slow pace of reforms in the crisis-hit country. The peaceful demonstration – the largest in some three months after the country eased a nationwide lockdown aimed at stemming the spread of COVID-19 – devolved into clashes between protesters, counter-protesters and security forces. The Lebanese Red Cross said 37 protesters had been injured, of which 11 were taken to hospitals for treatment.

Demonstrations have been taking place in Lebanon since October, when more than a million people burst onto the streets to demand a solution to the ailing economy, an end to rampant corruption and the downfall of civil war-era politicians. “We had a small break during coronavirus [lockdown], but we’re back,” Mario Sawaya, a 65-year-old retiree, told Al Jazeera from Beirut’s Martyr’s Square. He said the government of Hassan Diab, which gained confidence in February after protesters toppled the government of former Prime Minister Saad Hariri, had failed to show it could take strong independent decisions. “I don’t think they’re humans, because humans are defined by a conscience and values. They do not have any of that. This isn’t a government, it’s a zoo,” Sawaya said. Saturday’s protest saw a more mixed crowd than previous demonstrations, after former governing parties, with a majority-Christian support base that now finds itself in the opposition, called on their supporters to participate. Some called for the removal of the arsenal of Shia Hezbollah, a powerful Iran-backed militia and political force.

Most protest groups have pushed back, focusing on immediate reform – such as a new electoral law that reverses deep gerrymandering and the independence of the country’s judiciary – before tackling such divisive issues. Clashes ensued when dozens of counter-protesters, who support Hezbollah and its main Shia ally the Amal Movement, emerged from a neighbourhood near Martyr’s Square and shouted sectarian slogans. Hundreds of protesters ran towards them and hurled rocks and sticks at thick lines of riot police and soldiers. The protesters were pushed back but they clashed with security forces for several hours. Protesters set fires on main roads and at one point destroyed police motorbikes and set one alight.

by hrw.org — Aya Majzoub — In early April, about 400 foreign employees of RAMCO, a Lebanese construction, facility, and waste management company, went on strike to demand payment in US dollars and better working conditions. The strike, believed to be the first of its kind among foreign laborers in Lebanon, could set an example for other groups of workers demanding social and economic rights. Although RAMCO’s foreign workers have contracts in US dollars, workers say that since November, the company had been paying them in Lebanese lira at the now-defunct official exchange rate of 1,500 Lebanese lira to the dollar. Over the last few months, the lira has lost more than 60 percent of its value, meaning that their families back home are now unable to afford basic necessities. Walid Bou Saad, RAMCO’s director, confirmed to Human Rights Watch (HRW) that the company was paying workers in Lebanese lira, saying that this was because the company itself was receiving its payments from the Lebanese government in the local currency.

The workers eat and sleep on company premises and say RAMCO retains their passports and other identification documents; HRW confirmed the latter with Bou Saad. The workers also say that they are denied the minimum wage and days off. Bou Saad tells HRW the workers are receiving one day off per week as the labor law stipulates, and that their average salary is $400 per month—the legal minimum wage in Lebanon is LL675,000 ($450 at the official exchange rate). The workers called the strike on April 2. When RAMCO employees blocked roads outside company premises on May 12 and prevented the garbage trucks from leaving, riot police were called in. Videos circulating on social media show the riot police launching tear gas and beating the workers. A small number of workers appear to have destroyed company property. A week later, on May 20, the Bangladeshi embassy in Beirut announced that RAMCO had negotiated a temporary deal with the workers for an increase in their salaries, details of which remain unclear.

by arabnews.com — NAJIA HOUSSARI — BEIRUT: The Lebanese Council of Ministers has extended the period of general mobilization in the country to July 5 following a recommendation by the Lebanese Supreme Council of Defense. The decision comes two days before the demonstration planned by the civil movement on Saturday, resuming anti-government protests that erupted in the country on Oct. 17. “We do not fear the demonstrators, rather we fear for their health, and we are keen to protect the demonstration so that it would achieve its goals,” said Minister of Information Manal Abdel Samad after a Cabinet session on Thursday.

In a statement, the Lebanese Supreme Council of Defense said: “The military and security services should be firm in deterring violations of the general mobilization in order to prevent the proliferation of the coronavirus, and to cooperate with civil society and local authorities to achieve this objective.” General mobilization conditions include wearing masks, maintaining social distancing and avoiding overcrowding. During the meeting of the Supreme Council of Defense, Prime Minister Hassan Diab said: “The risk remains high, considering that cases of COVID-19 are still being recorded. “The precautionary and preventive measures are still necessary to avoid a second wave of the pandemic, which could be harder than the first wave. “The government understands the suffering of the people due to the social situation, but there is fear that some groups might take advantage of this for their political objectives in cutting roads and dismantling the country, shutting down enterprises, and obstructing people’s businesses, that could result in employees losing their jobs,” he added.

by realclearmarkets.com — By John Tamny — “I’d rather be an owner of something besides money that can disappear at any time in the bank.” That’s what Robert T. recently communicated to Wall Street Journal reporters Dion Nissenbaum and Nazih Osseiran. T. is a Beirut-based businessman who, according to Nissenbaum and Osseiran, recently “drained his family bank accounts to buy a ski chalet, an apartment in Dubai and two places in one of Beirut’s upscale neighborhoods.” With Beirut’s economy in serious trouble, its citizens are in the midst of a consumption binge.

Nissenbaum and Osseiran add that in a “desperate attempt to preserve their life savings amid the country’s financial crisis, many well-off Lebanese are now sinking money into Land Rovers, ski chalets, and expensive artwork.” In the real estate space alone, they report that the dollar value of property sales rose $1.8 billion in the first two months of 2020, which is apparently a 70% increase on the previous year. At which point conventional economic thinkers are scratching their heads. Economists routinely argue that consumption drives economic growth, yet growth is collapsing in Lebanon amid frenzied consumption, particularly at “the very top end of the luxury market.” What explains this riddle? The riddle is that economists to a man and woman have long been incorrect about what powers economic growth. Investment, not consumption is the source of growth. Consumption is a consequence of growth. In Lebanon, past growth made today’s frenzied consumption possible. Many Lebanese, desperate to “preserve their life savings” amassed during past periods of economic growth, are consuming hard assets with abandon to protect their wealth. Call it a “flight to the real.” It’s what people do when they no longer trust money. They exchange it for hard assets, or wealth that already exists. They consume wealth as opposed to creating new wealth through investment.

by Selina Denman — thenational.ae — To coincide with the launch of her latest song, Lebanese singer Majida El Roumi is appearing on the cover of Vogue Arabia’s June issue, which is out next week. Despite having a career that has spanned four decades, this is the first time that the enigmatic chanteuse has been photographed for a magazine cover. “I did not pose for any magazine cover for more than 45 years. It didn’t affect me,” she states in her interview with Vogue Arabia. “An artist’s prestige lies in making their fans long to see them perform. Recurrent appearances don’t serve the artist, but rather make their presence mundane, in a way that will not impact people.” El Roumi is seen draped in the Lebanese flag in one version of the cover; in another, she champions the work of a fellow Lebanese creative by donning a red gown by Georges Hobeika.

In the interview, she speaks of the important role that artists can play as public figures. “The artist’s role is more important than a politician. An artist should call for unity, independence and freedom of his country. This is their true duty,” says Al Roumi, who is also a UN Goodwill Ambassador. “I don’t care about material matters. What I care about is to stand by my human brothers, live their pain and wipe their tears. This is my true joy,” adds the singer, who performed the closing concert at this year’s Abu Dhabi Classics.