By Wajdi Al-Aridi

Beirut- President of the Association of Lebanese Industrialists Fadi
Gemayel has said that Lebanon is passing through difficult circumstances
as its growth rate has ranged between 1 and 1.5%. “Although this rate is being reached in some European countries too,
yet it is still so far away from what the Lebanese economy has achieved
in the past.”

Gemayel stressed that Lebanese industry isn’t in its best situation
and is not consistent with Lebanese people’s capabilities and
potentials. In an interview with Asharq Al-Awsat, Gemayel noted that the World
Bank praised the diversity of Lebanese products that include traditional
products as well as sophisticated goods in several sectors.

Gemayel said that Lebanon’s industry has faced many challenges in the
past and has developed without any support or industrial policy, except
for the interest subsidy in the industrial, agricultural and tourism
investments. He said that Lebanese products have reached countries with most demanding markets such as the United States, Canada and Europe.

We always praise the capabilities of Lebanon’s industry, he said, despite the challenges Lebanon has been facing for many years.

#khazen Beirut #LiveLoveLebanon

By Bob Bryan

Steven Mnuchin, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for
Treasury secretary, says the top priority of the new Trump
administration will be to cut taxes. Mnuchin, a longtime Goldman Sachs employee and Hollywood
producer, said his support of Trump cost him a few friends along
the way. “There were a lot of people in California and New York who wanted
to stop being friends,” Mnuchin said. Both states were won by
Trump’s Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton.

“Our first priority is to cut taxes,” Mnuchin said in an
interview with CNBC’s Squawk Box. “We want to cut the corporate
taxes, which will bring back growth.” During the interview, which also included Trump’s choice for
commerce secretary, Wilbur Ross, Mnuchin described a plan to cut
the corporate tax rate to 15% from its current 35% level.

On personal taxes, Mnuchin said the planned tax cut from the
Trump administration would not favor the upper class because any
cut for the wealthy would be offset by “closing various
exceptions” in the tax code. He did not specify what these would
be but did say the “absolute level” of upper-class taxes would
not go down.

Mnuchin said the changes in the tax codes would be the largest
changes since those under President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s.

Lebanon’s Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh speaks during ACI Lebanon
Golden Jubilee Grand Celebration, in Beirut September 1, 2014.
REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir

Beirut- Lebanon’s Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh affirmed that
Lebanon has completed required legislation regarding digital security.
He said that Lebanon considers – combating money laundering and fighting
funding terrorism – a priority and therefore participating through its
private and public sectors in this field.

Salameh made the call in his address to the 2nd Anti-Cyber-crime
Forum themed “Fighting Digital Fraud and Piracy in the Banking and
Commercial Sectors in Lebanon.”

The event is organized by Al Iktissad Wal-Aamal group, in
collaboration with Special Investigation Commission (SIC) of the Central
Bank of Lebanon and the Cybercrime and the Intellectual Property Bureau
of the Directorate General of the Internal Security Forces.

Governor Riad Salameh said that the cyber-crime has been worrying
governments and monitoring bodies – since they are suspected to be
linked to terrorism. “These crimes have increased throughout the past three years,”
secretary general of the central bank’s SIC Abdul-Hafeez Mansour told
the forum.

Damascus (dpa) – Israeli planes fired two rockets at the outskirts of
Damascus early Wednesday, state media reported, citing a Syrian
military source. The planes fired the rockets from Lebanese airspace into the Sabora
area, the state-run Syrian News Agency (SANA) reported.

Earlier in the day, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human
Rights and a pro-Syrian regime website said loud blasts, believed to
be the result of Israeli airstrikes, rocked areas west of the Syrian
capital. “We believe they are Israeli strikes … carried out from over the
Lebanese territories and hit a Syrian post in the area of Sabora on
the outskirts of Damascus,” Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the
Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said. 

Reports about the airstrikes have been contradictory. The pro-Syrian regime website Dimashq al-An [Damascus Now] said that
four loud explosions were heard along Damascus‘ outskirts a little
after midnight. The website reported that the blasts were the result of “an aerial
Zionist aggression” which targeted a Syrian post on the
Beirut-Damascus highway and resulted in no loss of life. Israel hasn‘t confirmed the attacks. Two raids took place, one hitting an arms depot, the pro-Hezbollah
Mullhak website reported, citing its own sources.

Jbeil #LiveLoveLebanon #khazen

The Daily Star, BEIRUT: A new Cabinet cannot be formed unless Lebanon’s politicians find solutions to a number of contentious issues, a Future Movement official said Monday. “Matters are complicated concerning Cabinet formation,” former MP Mustafa Alloush told Voice of Lebanon radio (100.5). These complications are the “tip of the iceberg,” he said.

Meanwhile, Change and Reform MP Hikmat Deeb said that “agreements have been made on fundamental issues,” during a morning talk show on LBCI. However, he added that some disputes over “minor details” remain unresolved.

Caretaker Social Affairs Minister Rashid Derbas told Voice of Lebanon radio (93.3) that disagreements over the distribution of ministerial portfolios indicate that political rivals “favor their personal interests over that of the state.”

He said that Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri had “made big compromises, including the election of [President] Michel Aoun, on condition that the Cabinet would be formed within a week of his election.” Derbas blamed Hariri and Aoun for the delay in Cabinet formation, but said that he believes that the PM-designate will “make further settlements to accelerate [an agreement] on his Cabinet lineup.”

The article represent option of the author

By Stephen Zunes   – National Catholic Reporter – ncronline.org

There are more than a few ironies regarding the Oct. 31 election by
the Lebanese parliament of former Gen. Michel Aoun, a Maronite Catholic
who received his military training in the United States, as the
country’s new president. One of the most striking is his shifting
allegiances and the inconsistencies of U.S. policy toward Lebanon.

Aoun’s political party, known as the Free Patriotic Movement, is the
most popular Christian-led political group in the country, surpassing
the once-dominant far-right-wing Phalangists. Aoun’s party is aligned
with the March 8 Alliance, one of the two main political blocs in the
country, which includes leftists and Arab nationalists, as well as
Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed radical Shiite group. As a result, both The Washington Post and The New York Times announced the election of the “Hezbollah ally” to the presidency and The Guardian referred to him as “a staunch ally of Iran.”

In 2007, former Rep. Gary Ackerman, D-N.Y., when he was ranking
member of the Middle East Subcommittee of the House Foreign Affairs
Committee, accused Aoun and his supporters of being “agents” and
“boot-licking Lebanese proxies” of Syria and Iran, whom he referred to
as the “puppet masters pulling on the strings.” He further accused
“Aounists” of trying to “take through violence and intimidation what
they cannot achieve at the ballot box.”

In reality, Aoun has become president last month through a
constitutional process by a democratically elected parliament. This was
not the case back in 1988 when he led a military regime, one of two
rival governments. In October 1990, as the only major obstacle remaining
to implementing the Taif Accords, which finally brought an end to that
country’s bloody 15-year civil war, he was ousted by Lebanese and Syrian
forces. The operation was openly supported by the United States,
concerned with Aoun’s then-alliance with Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein,
the only foreign leader who provided Aoun’s regime with unconditional
support.

JBEIL BYBLOS #khazen Mar Youhana – Jbeil