Published in NYT – Beirut: There was once a nice sea view at the Al Jazira beach club,
and umbrellas of palm fronds sticking from the sand are reminders of
nicer days. Nowadays, the place is surrounded by an ever-growing garbage
dump. “It used to be a beach,” said Hassan, a Syrian man who
works as a caretaker at the club and insisted on being identified only
by his first name because of a lawsuit concerning the city. “There was
sea. There were rocks. I used to fish.”

Just up the shoreline,
Mohammad Jradi, who has been fishing the waters of the Mediterranean off
Beirut for 20 years, said the trash had driven even the fish away. “All over the world, they have solutions for this, but not here,” he said. There
is no end, it seems, to Lebanon’s trash crisis, a potent symbol of the
dysfunctional, sect-based politics that define this tiny country. When
trash piles built up across this city two years ago, enveloping Beirut
in a nasty stench, they spawned a protest movement, called ‘You Stink,’
against the political class. Now, the latest episode of the crisis has become a uniquely Lebanese
story, entwining bird migration, civil aviation, mysterious gunmen and
the long story of Lebanon’s struggle to become a functioning state that
can at least take care of its trash, more than 25 years after emerging
from a long civil war.

Last year, as a Band-Aid solution to the
garbage crisis, the municipality opened the Costa Brava landfill on the
shoreline, not far from Beirut’s Rafic Hariri International Airport. And
so for many visitors to Beirut, a city whose shabby-chic architecture,
great cuisine and French colonial influences are otherwise enchanting,
the first thing to greet them was a strong whiff of garbage.

BEIRUT
(Reuters) – Lebanese President Michel Aoun said on Friday world powers
must work with Damascus to create safe zones in Syria so refugees can
return to their country. It
was the first time the Beirut government had lent its support to such a
plan. At least a million people have fled the Syrian civil war since
2011 into Lebanon, which has an estimated total population of less than
six million. Lebanon
would not force unsafe return on any refugees, but the international
community must make their return possible, Aoun’s office quoted him as
saying in a meeting on Friday with U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees
Filippo Grandi.

He
said it was “important to achieve a political solution” to the
conflict. Aoun is an ally of Lebanon’s Hezbollah group which is fighting
in Syria in support of President Bashar al-Assad. U.S.
President Trump said last week he would “absolutely do safe zones in
Syria” for refugees fleeing violence and that Europe had made a mistake
by admitting millions of refugees.. According
to a document seen by Reuters, Trump is expected to order the Pentagon
and the State Department to craft such a plan, a move that could ratchet
up U.S. military involvement in Syria.

The
Syrian government said on Monday that any attempt to create so-called
safe zones for refugees without coordinating with Damascus would be
“unsafe” and violate Syria’s sovereignty.

Rebel
backers including Qatar have welcomed Trump’s support for safe zones,
and Turkey says it is waiting to see the outcome of the U.S. president’s
pledge.

By Pamela Engel – Business Insider

President Donald Trump reportedly issued a surprise warning to
Israel on Thursday to stop announcing settlements that
“undermine” his administration’s efforts to create peace in the
Middle East. A White House official
told The Jerusalem Post that Trump is committed to a
two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict and that the
White House was surprised by Israel’s announcement
of thousands of new settlement housing units in the
West Bank.

“As President Trump has made clear, he is very interested in
reaching a deal that would end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
and is currently exploring the best means of making progress
toward that goal,” the official reportedly said. “With that in
mind, we urge all parties to refrain from taking unilateral
actions that could undermine our ability to make progress,
including settlement announcements. The administration needs
to have the chance to fully consult with all parties on the way
forward.” The official, according to the report, also elaborated on the
two-state solution Trump envisions. “The United States remains committed to advancing a comprehensive
final-status agreement between Israel and the Palestinians that
results in two states living side-by-side in peace and security,”
the official told the newspaper.

By Matt Hadro

By Jaber Ali on February 2, 2017.

During a meeting with a delegation of
the Lebanese Communist Party, President Michel Aoun has added his voice
to the tense debate over the reform of the electoral law ahead of the
parliamentary elections by stating that “verbal bickering does not lead
to an outcome.” He called for the continuation of “our
struggle until we attain truthful popular representation and rule clear
of personal interests in a bid to build the state and create a powerful
system.”

The Lebanese are divided over the system
to adopt in electing members of the parliament with many seeming to
back the adoption of a proportionality approach in order to have a
balance between majority and minority. Prime Minister Saad Hariri, in a cabinet
meeting on Wednesday, recalled that “when the government pledged in its
ministerial statement to grant priority to stage the elections, it did
not separate between this end and the efforts to find a new election
law.” He acknowledged that there are opposing views but that does “not
necessarily mean that we have reached a dead end.” Hariri called for
efforts to continue in order to have a law acceptable by each party and
sect.

MP Farid Khazen from the Change and Reform bloc claimed that some
political parties are blocking the reform by refusing all the proposals
made. He lamented that “it is impossible to reach an election law that
satisfies everybody.”

AMMAN (WABA Championship 2017) – Lebanon have locked up the title in the West Asia Basketball Association (WABA) Championship 2017 in Amman, Jordan after beating hosts Jordan on Day Four of competition. Iran and Syria also notched huge victories to book seats in the FIBA Asia Cup 2017.

 Lebanon defeated Jordan, 72-61, to move up to 4-0
and officially win the WABA Championship 2017 crown. The Cedars did not
waste any time in this one, building up a commanding 27-9 lead at the
end of the first period. Coach Joe Moujaes and his wards would not
relinquish the advantage the rest of the way despite Jordan staying
within striking distance.

By yalibnan.com- Article slightly edited

Lebanon Speaker Nabih Berri declared on  Wednesday that he will not endorse any electoral law that “does not enjoy consensus.” “Contacts and discussions are still ongoing in a bid to
agree on a new electoral law and new ideas are being discussed,” MPs
Berri  was quoted as saying  by MPs during his weekly meeting with
lawmakers in Ain el-Tineh. “We are still in the phase of mulling proposals and we have not yet reached a dead end,” Berri added.

“We reiterate the need to apply unified standards (in the electoral law format) and I will not endorse any law that does not enjoy consensus,” the speaker went on to say. Berri’s AMAL Movement, Hezbollah, Future  Movement and the Free Patriotic Movement are holding meetings aimed at reaching a deal  on a new electoral law.

Taef accord compliance 

Responding to claims that the hybrid electoral law does
not not comply with   the Taef accord Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea
stressed on Wednesday that no one is trying to manipulate the Taef
accord, assuring that efforts exerted are merely focusing on finding a
new electoral  law,  National News Agency reported on Wednesday. Geagea expressed astonishment at the “latest talk about the Taef Accord. We like to remind that we were the first to pay the price, and will not accept any tampering with Taef.

“But it is worth noting that no one has such an
intention. There are strenuous efforts to reach a new electoral law
which in turn would reinstate the Taef Accord further,” said Geagea
during a celebration in Maarab. He called upon all political parties to focus on
approving a new electoral law to regulate political work in Lebanon,
considering that the “hybrid law is the only one that would bring all
parties together midway.”

by reuters, Lebanon expects to start oil production in 2018 and will deposit the resulting revenues into a sovereign wealth fund, President Michel Aoun said on Jan. 31. “Everything that is extracted will be for the Lebanese people,” he said during a meeting with a press syndicate delegation. Aoun said the revenues would be invested […]

Al Bawaba

The legendary cedar of Lebanon
is the oldest recorded tree in human history, having been first
mentioned some 4,500 years ago. The Egyptian pharaohs and other ancient
Mediterranean civilizations used the wood to build their palaces,
temples and ships. Centuries later, the cedars of Lebanon are in
trouble, with only a few isolated groves left, due to deforestation and
illegal logging. But that is changing. In the last six years, more
than 600,000 trees — cedars as well as other native species — have been
planted throughout the country as part of the Lebanon Reforestation
Initiative (LRI). The goal of the initiative, launched in 2010
with help from USAID, the US Forest Service, the Lebanese government and
local business sponsors, is to expand existing wilderness reserves and increase forest cover by 50 percent by the year 2020.

“Getting trees to grow in these
severely degraded lands is a major challenge,” says Darin Stringer, an
Oregon forester and head of the consultancy Pacific Stewardship, who was
brought in by the Forest Service as an adviser to the LRI. But
the Lebanese are “passionate in their desire to reclaim their forests,”
Stringer says. The initiative has helped introduce sustainable forestry
practices and wildfire management to Lebanon, in combination with
traditional methods.