by Massoud A. Derhally and Khaled Yacoub Oweis — Abdul Halim Khaddam, a former Syrian vice president who turned against President Bashar Al Assad’s rule but was largely shunned by the opposition, died on Tuesday in France. His son Jihad confirmed Khaddam’s death to The National from Istanbul. Khaddam was 88 years old. Salah Ayach, a close friend to Khaddam in exile, said he died at 5am of a heart attack. The former vice-president fled Syria after the killing of his Lebanese ally Rafik Hariri in February 2005. A UN investigation implicated senior Syrian security officials in the killing, and an international tribunal in the Netherlands indicted several Hezbollah operatives who are being tried in absentia.

Once seen as a possible successor to Hafez, instead he helped Bashar tighten his grip on power after he took office in June 2000. In the days following the elder Assad’s death, Khaddam pushed through decrees elevating Bashar’s military rank to general and making him commander of the armed forces — key moves in the uncertain process of succession. Khaddam went to Beirut to pay condolences to Hariri’s family. He was the only Syrian official at the mourning and by the end of 2005 he relocated to Paris. UN investigators interviewed Khaddam as part of their probe into the assassination as someone with near unmatched insight of the functioning of the Syrian regime. A Baath Party stalwart, Khaddam was a provincial governor in charge of the Golan Heights during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. Hafez Al Assad was defence minister at the time. The loss of the Golan to Israel did not prevent Hafez Al Assad from becoming president in 1970. Khaddam, a close ally of the new president, became foreign minister and the Syrian regime’s softer face of its divide and conquer approach to Lebanon. He set up in France an opposition coalition to the regime that was buoyed by the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, expecting the repercussions to weaken Bashar Al Assad. A few months into the Syrian revolt, which broke out in March 2011, Khaddam said: “If the international community does not react to stop these crimes and protect civilians, the Syrians will be forced to take up arms to defend themselves.”

by arabnews.com — NAJIA HOUSSARI — BEIRUT: Lebanese quarantine rules were broken on Monday with hundreds heading to banks to collect their salaries in northern and southern Lebanon. Meanwhile, the Lebanese Army closed shops in violation of the shutdown laws in a Hezbollah security zone in the southern suburb of Beirut. The violations came as eight new confirmed cases of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) were recorded in Lebanon on Sunday and Monday. However, this low number was not shared by the director of the Hariri Governmental University Hospital, Dr. Firas Al-Abyad, as most of the laboratories operate at half capacity on weekends. The number of COVID-19 deaths rose to 11. The Ministry of Health said that the latest fatality was a patient in her 80s suffering from chronic illnesses. A source at the hospital told Arab News: “The quarantine is beginning to show its results now and we have to wait to see the newly infected cases in the coming days. We may reach the peak stage and we are preparing for it medically.”

The Ministry of Health said that “out of 446 people infected with the coronavirus, there are 416 Lebanese and the rest are of 18 other nationalities.” It added: “Between Sunday and Monday, the Lebanese Red Cross transferred 430 suspected cases with COVID-19 symptoms and they are waiting for the results of their tests. There are 1,074 people still quarantined for contact with infected patients. There have been 32 cases of recovery so far.” On Monday, journalist May Chidiac was discharged from hospital after she was diagnosed with COVID-19. She spent a week in the hospital. She told Arab News that she did not need oxygen or a ventilator and that “the longest hour in my life was today when I waited for my sister to take me from hospital to home.”

by middleeasteye.net — Cheering erupted from balconies and windows in Lebanon on Sunday evening, as the country’s citizens celebrated their “heroic” medical workers battling the coronavirus pandemic. The initiative spread online with the Arabic hashtag “a cheer for the heroes”, shared by public figures including journalists, actors and the Arab pop star Ragheb Alama. In one Beirut neighbourhood, a woman draped in a Lebanese flag sang the national anthem as her neighbours drummed on pots and pans, an AFP journalist said. Elsewhere, Lebanese played drums and blew vuvuzelas, sharing videos of the street performances online. Similar initiatives have gained attention from Italy to France but they have remained rare in the Arab world.

by AFP — Lebanon Friday pledged to finalise a plan to restructure the country’s massive debt by the end of 2020, just weeks after its first default in history. Finance Minister Ghazi Wazni promised “a full restructuring of the government debt –- both Lebanese pound and dollar denominated debt” as part of a wider economic recovery plan. “Our aim is to finalise this ambitious turnaround agenda before year-end 2020,” he said during a presentation to investors by webcast. Describing the Lebanese economic model as “broken”, he also pledged banking sector and fiscal reforms. One of the most indebted countries in the world, Lebanon is burdened by a public debt equivalent to more than 170 percent of GDP. On Monday, the finance ministry said it would discontinue payments on all of its outstanding dollar-denominated Eurobonds. This came after its first default in history on a $1.2 billion Eurobond originally due on March 9. The country is embroiled in one of its worst economic crises since the 1975-1990 civil war, now compounded by an outbreak of the novel coronavirus. In a bid to halt the spread of the illness, the government has ordered a lockdown until April 12 and ordered all non-essential businesses to close.

by middleeastmonitor.com — Lebanese security forces cleared away a protest camp in central Beirut on Saturday and reopened roads blocked by demonstrators since protests against the governing elite started in October, Reuters reports. The camp centred around Martyrs Square had mostly fallen dormant in recent months as the protests waned. Lebanon this week tightened measures […]

by middleeastmonitor.com — The government in Lebanon is preparing to fly citizens stranded abroad by the coronavirus pandemic back to Beirut, Minister of Information Manal Abdul Samad said on Thursday. “Those Lebanese abroad who want to return to Lebanon after 12 April must fill in forms and a mechanism will be devised before 30 March to facilitate bank transfers to them,” she explained. “They should communicate with our embassies to report their situation and needs.” Foreign Minister Nassif Hitti confirmed the news in an interview with local channel MTV, noting that no Lebanese citizen will be allowed to return before they are tested for Covid-19 and it is confirmed that they do not have or carry the disease. “Any infected person can be an unexploded bomb for those returning on the same flight,” he explained. Lebanese students overseas and in financial difficulties will also be eligible to apply for money transfers from the government, added Hitti.

Lebanese banks have been enforcing harsh capital controls on accounts since October, only allowing depositors to withdraw as little as $100 per week as the country faces its worst economic and financial crisis since the end of the civil war in 1990. Hitti noted that students whose families are unable to support them financially because of the current situation will be supported by the government. Lebanon has also extended the state of “general mobilisation” until 12 April and added new measures to combat the spread of the coronavirus.

by Naharnet — Information Minister Manal Abdul Samad on Thursday explained what the government intends to do regarding the Lebanese citizens who want to return to their country due to the global coronavirus crisis. “The Lebanese abroad who want to return to Lebanon after April 12 must fill in forms and a mechanism will be devised before March 30 to facilitate bank transfers to them,” Abdul Samad said in remarks reported by MTV. They should “communicate with the embassies to report their situation and needs,” Abdul Samad added.

 by globalnewshut.com — Germaine K. Curran —PARIS: France’s Lebanese neighborhood speak about confinement throughout the pandemic and the place they might quite be France is dwelling to about 250,000 Lebanese — college students, entrepreneurs, businessmen, bankers, architects, medical doctors, surgeons, restaurateurs, hoteliers, nurses and orderlies. Arab Information requested a variety of them concerning the lockdown in France and whether or not they felt safer in France than in Lebanon. Most of these interviewed felt that the French state was extra involved with the well being and well-being of its residents and extra prepared to compensate firms for losses incurred than the Lebanese state, which is overwhelmed with chapter and money owed and is unable to make sure even the bottom requirements of residing for its residents.

Ziad Asseily, co-owner of the Liza eating places in Paris and Beirut along with his spouse Liza, is now confined to dwelling in Paris. “I used to be in Beirut and I went again to Paris to be with my spouse Liza and my daughter simply earlier than the closure of Beirut airport. I might say that I really feel safer in Paris than in Beirut for the struggle in opposition to coronavirus as a result of in France now we have a complete authorities that manages the state of affairs. In Lebanon, folks should depend on themselves to face this disaster,” he stated. “Throughout my keep in Lebanon, I met some mates who took the initiative to abide by the internationally imposed prevention measures lengthy earlier than the Lebanese authorities imposed them. Residents resorted to dwelling confinement even earlier than the federal government determined to droop worldwide flights. They understood that it was the appropriate step to take, to isolate oneself.”

by Naharnet — A Lebanese coronavirus patient died on Wednesday as four others recovered, the state-run Rafik Hariri University Hospital announced. The fatality raises the country’s death toll from the pandemic to six. Twenty patients have recovered until the moment according to a statement issued by RHUH. All the other patients at the hospital are […]

by arabnews.com — BEIRUT: Lebanese MP Neemat Frem revealed a ventilator prototype on Wednesday, two weeks after launching an initiative to build one with a group of specialized engineers and doctors. Frem said: “The machine, which will benefit the country’s intensive care units, was built according to high specifications and accurate, advanced and versatile technologies.” […]

(MENAFN – Asia Times) TRIPOLI — On the eve of a nationwide Covid-19 lockdown, a group of men blocked off the modern gates of Tripoli, the stretch of highway leading to Lebanon’s second-largest city. It was March 17, and the country’s neglected northern metropolis, which looks out to the Mediterranean and borders Syria, still had not recorded any novel coronavirus cases. The impoverished protesters were incensed the government was threatening their livelihoods with a nationwide lockdown. ‘Someone came to me asking for 1,000 LBP (50 cents) because he can’t even buy bread for his kids. I had a package, so I gave it to him and kept three slices for my own kids. This is where we’re at!? Isn’t it shameful!’ one man cried out in a video filmed on a mobile phone. ‘I swear to God, I saw a guy sell his cooking gas canister to buy milk for his kids!’ A young man, a struggling taxi driver in the city, lambasted the government for waiting a month after the first Covid-19 case was flagged to cut off air travel. ‘If they were smart, they would have shut down the airport from the beginning, because it came from the airport, not the land border,’ he said.

Lebanon’s first cases of coronavirus were citizens flying back from Shiite religious pilgrimages to Iran, with the first positive test result announced February 21. At the time, Iran was not yet a global epicenter for Covid-19 – with less than two dozen cases – but in the three-and-a-half weeks that followed, alarm grew over daily flights from Qom and other Iranian cities. Residents of Tripoli, with its population overwhelmingly Sunni, appeared initially more insulated, but the Beirut-based outbreak has since made its way up the coast and to the mountainous districts above the city. Other cases later arrived via Egypt. On Tuesday, the confirmed cases had risen above 300. ‘The government didn’t act from the beginning. Now they want to fix it and be smart. So they put us in this health lockdown,’ said the taxi driver. ‘But if you want to do a lockdown, you need to give people the means to survive it. Tripoli isn’t Beirut, we’re living day by day.’ ‘They’re saying it’s going to be a 15-day shutdown,’ another man chimed in. ‘How are people supposed to eat if their shops are closed and they don’t have work?’