by middleeastmonitor.com — Issam Naaman — A semi-orchestrated campaign has been seen in Lebanon over the past week calling for the terms of the 1989 Taif Agreement to be implemented. It has involved government heads, ministers, MPs, religious authorities, leaders of political parties, journalists, social media, and women and men from various organisations, circles, regions and affiliations. But why is this happening now? Is it because the American, French and Saudi Arabian foreign ministers issued a statement in New York about the need to “commit to the Taif Agreement which enables the preservation of national unity and civil peace in Lebanon”? Is there anyone within the Lebanese government who opposes the Taif Agreement or calls for its provisions to be bypassed? Or did the three foreign ministers instruct their allies and supporters of their collective interference in Lebanon’s internal affairs to raise this issue at this particularly difficult time? If so, why? I would like to remind everyone, opponents and loyalists alike, that most of the reforms and obligations stipulated in the Taif Agreement are an integral part of the Lebanese constitution. The government of Prime Minister Selim Hoss drafted a law to include the agreement’s reforms within the body of the constitution, and the House of Representatives approved it on 21 September, 1990. All we need to move forward is to implement the terms of the existing constitution.

The most prominent reforms legislated an introduction for the constitution and amended 31 articles in the constitution, the most important of which are the following: Article 22, which provides for the election of a Parliament on a national, non-sectarian basis, and a Senate with powers limited to crucial issues. Article 24, stipulating that Parliamentary seats are distributed equally between Christians and Muslims. Article 95, which works to abolish political sectarianism according to a phased plan. Is there a country left in the modern world other than Lebanon where many of the provisions of its constitution have not yet been implemented after more than 32 years? The articles were included because the sectarian quota system in government with all its complexities and corruption was adopted upon the establishment of the State of Greater Lebanon by a decision made by the French colonial authorities in 1920. Moreover, we still see the control and corruption of members of the ruling regimes, and the prioritisation of their own interests at the expense of the general national interests, as well as extreme positions taken by some religious figures and institutions.

BEIRUT, (Reuters) – Lebanon plans to slash its official exchange rate, replacing the 1,507 per dollar rate adopted 25 years ago with a rate of 15,000 in a step towards unifying numerous exchange rates, the finance minister told Reuters on Wednesday. After saying the move would come into effect on Nov. 1, the ministry later said the step was conditioned on the approval of a plan to address the crisis, which is under discussion in parliament. The Lebanese pound has plunged by more than 95% from the official rate since Lebanon fell into financial crisis three years ago, with dollars currently changing hands at around 38,000 on a parallel market. “The goal is for there to be a unification of the exchange rates in Lebanon,”

Finance Minister Youssef Khalil said, calling the decision a “fundamental step” in that direction. The step would come into force on Nov. 1, the ministry said. “Today, Lebanon has entered a new phase and is no longer using an official U.S. dollar exchange rate that makes no sense … Now we have one that is useful, based on which you can steer the economy toward a better situation,” he said.

The decision – which Khalil said was agreed with central bank governor Riad Salameh – marks a milestone in the meltdown that has plunged swathes of the population into poverty in the worst crisis since the 1975-90 civil war. “We have to wait before anticipating further moves,” he said. Ruling politicians have so far taken scarcely any action towards tackling the crisis. Unifying the numerous exchange rates operating in the country is one of several conditions set by the IMF for Lebanon to secure a badly needed aid package. The Fund has said this is crucial to boosting economic activity. The IMF said last week progress in implementing reforms remained very slow, with the bulk yet to be carried out.

By Doreen Abi Raad — cruxnow.com — BEIRUT — Lebanese Cardinal Bechara Rai denounced the launching of “boats of death” from Lebanon following the drowning of nearly 100 migrants who had attempted to flee the crisis-stricken country. The boat reportedly set off toward Europe Sept. 20 from the port of Miniyeh, near Tripoli, carrying between 120 and 170 migrants and refugees, mostly Syrians, Lebanese and Palestinians. Two days later, it sank in the Mediterranean off the coast of Tartus, Syria, about 30 miles north of Tripoli. “Tragedies have become the daily bread of the Lebanese,’” Rai, Maronite patriarch, said in his Sept. 25 homily at Dimane, the patriarchal summer residence in north Lebanon. “We are appalled by the drowning of … people at sea, boarding boats unfit for long-distance sea crossing,” he said.

Rai lamented “immigration at any cost,” the desperate measures taken by those who embark on a risky, perilous sea journey to escape Lebanon’s suffocating economy with the hopes of a decent standard of living abroad. “The search for life sometimes leads to death,” Rai said. “What is more dangerous is that this tragedy is not the first, so where are the deterrent security measures taken by the state to prevent the boats of death from launching?” the cardinal asked. Earlier in September, at least six people, including children, were killed when a boat bound for Europe from Lebanon sank off the coast of Turkey.

In April, a small migrant boat with dozens of people on board sank off Tripoli. More than 40 people were killed, and many are still missing. “The state is responsible for this tragedy by its inability to get the country out of its economic, financial and social crisis,” Rai said. “We express our heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims, and we ask God to comfort their hearts with the abundance of his mercy,” he said.

By KAREEM CHEHAYEB Associated Press — BEIRUT — Lebanon’s parliament speaker on Tuesday summoned lawmakers for a session this week to elect the country’s next president, offering a glimmer of hope of a political step forward even as chaos roils this Mideast nation. Parliament is to convene on Thursday, according to a memo from the […]

DUBAI, Sept 26 (Reuters) – Lebanon expects a written offer from U.S. mediator Amos Hochstein concerning the demarcation of a maritime border with Israel by the end of the week, Lebanon’s presidency tweeted on Monday. Lebanon’s deputy speaker of parliament Elias Bou Saab met with Hochstein last week during a visit to New York and […]

BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanese army retirees scuffled with parliamentary guard troops as they briefly broke through a cordon leading to Parliament in downtown Beirut during a rally Monday. They were protesting their decimated monthly pay amid the country’s economic meltdown. The troops managed to push the crowd back and fired teargas, forcing the elderly retirees to turn away from the street. After a short while, they gathered nearby to continue their protest and demand higher pay. They later dispersed. Hours after the protest, Parliament passed the 2022 budget, a key demand by the International Monetary Fund, with 63 legislators voting in favor, 37 voting against and six abstaining. The new budget will calculate customs tax revenue at 15,000 Lebanese pounds to the dollar at a time when the black market rate is more than double that at about 37,000 pounds to the dollar. Since the meltdown began three years ago, the customs tax revenue was calculated at the official rate of 1,500 pounds to the dollar.

According to the new budget, government expenditures stand at 40.9 trillion pounds ($1.1 billion) at the parallel market rate, while revenue stands at 30 trillion pounds ($810 million). The government also approved a 200% salary increase to civil servants and civilian and military retirees on condition that their monthly income does not exceed 12 million pounds ($324). The rally came as banks in this crisis-hit Lebanon partially reopened Monday following a weeklong closure amid a wave of heists in which assailants stormed at least seven bank branches earlier this month, demanding to withdraw their trapped savings. The Association of Banks in Lebanon had said last Monday it was going on strike amid bank holdups by depositors and activists.

by Mina Al-Oraibi | Joyce Karam — nationalnews.com — The US believes the “ball is in Iran’s court” regarding the resumption of the JCPOA deal, at a time when the prospects for the deal seems less positive than just a few months ago. Meanwhile, protests are expanding in Iran over the killing of Mahsa Amini. Speaking to The National in New York, where she participated in the US delegation to the UN General Assembly’s High Level Week, assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs Barbara Leaf said that the US “was not looking for fights” with Iran. While there continues to be a diplomatic push to revive the nuclear deal with Iran, several Arab and western diplomats who spoke to The National in New York appeared less optimistic that an agreement could be reached..

Ms Leaf said she was “not going to speculate” over what options were available if the deal did not come through, but said “the package that’s on the table is a sound one”. She said the talks were “stuck because Iranian leaders haven’t made the decision to go back in, but they also have brought in extraneous issues and it’s not just we who view them as extraneous, the collective group views them as extraneous”. Among those demands are additional safeguards that the US would not pull out of the deal in the future and the removal of the Islamic Republican Guard Corps from the list of terrorist organisations. Ms Leaf said: “we’ve done everything that we needed to do at this point. The ball is really in Iran’s court.”

As to whether the protests in Iran will make it harder for politicians to make a decision to rejoin the JCPOA, Ms Leaf said: “They were having trouble making the decision before it appeared.” On the protests, she said that: “The brutal killing of this young woman was so shocking and it’s just unleashed this titanic wave of anger in Iran that is really quite striking. “I’ve talked to Iranian women over the past few years and they’re really sick of being told what to do, about their appearance [and] how to live their lives. And clearly, a lot of lot of Iranian men feel the same way.” However, she did not see the two issues as related. “I don’t know if it affects how they think about the deal. The deal has its own logic.”

NNA – Maronite Patriarch Beshara Boutros Rahi, warned on Sunday during Sunday Mass service against any attempt to disrupt the presidential elections because it excludes Christians from power. “To block the presidential elections aims to overthrow the republic and exclude the Christian and Maronite role, in particular, from power,” Rahi said. The Patriarch renewed the […]

By Ghalia Tamam — Beirut, a picturesque coastal city known for its white capped mountains and booming night life is also home to some of the most beautiful heritage houses lining its inner neighborhoods. Nestled within Beirut’s oldest neighborhood, Abdel Wahab Al Ingiliz’s Street, are some of Beirut’s architectural gems including the 1890 Messarra House as well as the refurbished 1930s house transformed into the Albergo hotel. Unfortunately, not all of the city’s buildings stood the test of time. On August 4th 2020, a loud explosion thundered through the port of Beirut, killing at least 220 people while also destroying several of the city’s unique and precious buildings in its wake. The event saddened the hearts of its people and the Arab nation as a whole. To bring back a semblance of hope as well as a taste of Beirut prior to the 2020 incident, the Beirut Heritage Initiative (BHI) which launched after the events of the explosion collaborated with a maritime archaeology charity known as The Honor Frost Foundation to restore one of the buildings destroyed by the blast.

Located between Pasteur Street and Charles Helou Avenue, the Medawar 479 also known as The Blue House built in 1890 was hit badly by the explosion because of its proximity to the port. To restore it back to its old glory, the BHI reached out to the Honor Frost Foundation (HFF) to request funding for the restoration of several of the buildings hit by the blast including the Blue House. The HFF agreed to fund the Medawar 479 project and the renovation process started on November 2021. The entire project took over a year. On February 28th of this year, the HFF posted an update as well as a sneak peek of the house on Instagram, proudly stating that in over four months, they were able to complete 50% of the renovation process. Structural consolidation, as well as reconstruction of the pitched roof and rebuilding of the houses’ windows using Lebanese cedar wood, were some of the highlights of the restoration work.

VATICAN CITY (RNS) — Catholics in the United States are deeply divided over issues as disparate as LGBTQ inclusion, clerical sexual abuse and celebrating the liturgy, according to a summary of consultations carried out in dioceses across the country in recent months as part of Pope Francis’ Synod on Synodality. “Participants felt this division as a profound sense of pain and anxiety,” the U.S. bishops wrote in a summary released Monday (Sept. 19) to the public after being sent to the Vatican last month. In 2021, Francis launched a global discussion, requiring parish churches and a host of other religious organizations to gather their congregations to talk about how they view the hierarchy and issues facing the church. The discussion would inform a summit of bishops at the Vatican scheduled for October 2023 on the topic “For a Synodal Church: Participation, Communion and Mission.”

Bishops’ conferences were tasked with collecting comments made at the parish level and sending them to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, who produced a report for the Vatican. To collect the information from the over 66.8 million Catholics living in the United States, bishops divided the country into 15 administrative regions, including one representing the Eastern Churches. Contributions by Catholic organizations and individuals were grouped into a 16th region. A total of 290 documents were sent to the U.S. bishops to summarize. In a section of the document titled “Enduring wounds,” the bishops wrote that Catholics have brought divisions born in the political arena, including views on the Eucharist and the celebration of Mass, into the pews. A controversy about whether Catholic pro-choice politicians, including President Joe Biden, should be allowed to receive Communion at Mass has fractured Catholic communities in recent years and led U.S. Bishops to launch a $28 million three-year process to “restore” and “revive” the Eucharist.

Francis’ decision last year to strongly restrict the celebration of Mass in the Old Latin Rite, which the pontiff believed had become a rallying cause for conservative dissent, has led some Catholics to lament “the level of animosity” and “feeling judged” in the church, the USCCB report said. The polarization has also affected the church hierarchy, with the divisions among bishops — and sometimes between bishops and the pope — becoming “a source of grave scandal,” the summary stated. “This perceived lack of unity within the hierarchy seems to, in turn, justify division at the local level,” the document said. Connected to the topic of polarization was “marginalization.” The report emphasized calls by many Catholics for the church to become a more welcoming and open space. Two groups most marginalized, it suggested, were those who lack social or economic power and those whose lifestyle is condemned by church teaching.