by english.alaraby.co.uk — Lebanon’s presidency has denied reports that leading politicians have pocketed hundreds of millions of dollars in Lebanese passport sales, including to individuals associated with the Syrian regime. French newspaper Libération reported Thursday that 4,000 Lebanese passports were on sale for as much as $102,000 each, with relatives of members of the Syrian regime among the prospective buyers. A decree for the naturalisation of 4,000 non-Lebanese was in the process of being issued, sources close to beneficiaries and actors in the passport sale operation told Libération.

The decree would have to be signed by Lebanon’s president, prime minister, and interior and finance ministers – all of whom could allegedly split the proceeds in passport sales, which could total as much as $407 million, according to the report. The “buyers” of the nationality could include relatives of senior Syrian regime figures looking to circumvent travel restrictions and sanctions on them and travel overseas more easily, it added. The media office of Lebanon President Michel Aoun rejected the claims. “What the French Liberation newspaper reported about ‘the sale’ of Lebanese passports to non-Lebanese is false news and has no basis,” the Lebanese Presidency tweeted. The revelations came as part of a Libération report on Lebanon two years after the Beirut port blast in which more than 200 people died. Endemic corruption has been blamed for the disaster, as well as the lack of accountability for those believed responsible for the blast.

By Doreen Abi Raad • Catholic News Service • BEIRUT (CNS) — The 2020 Beirut port blast was the “crime of the century,” said Lebanese Cardinal Bechara Rai, Maronite patriarch. In a solemn Mass commemorating the second anniversary of the blast Aug. 4, the cardinal expressed frustration that no one had been held accountable for the explosion that left 224 dead, 7,000 injured — including 150 of whom are now disabled — and 300,000 homeless. Investigations regarding the blast have been paralyzed by legal and political wrangling. “We are today in the presence of two crimes, that of the explosion of the port and that of the paralysis of the investigation. This paralysis is no less scandalous than the explosion itself,” Cardinal Rai said in his homily at St. George Maronite Cathedral, one of some 70,000 buildings that suffered damages from the blast.

The Mass was attended by family members of the blast victims, the injured and those whose homes and livelihoods had been destroyed. Many family members, dressed in black, held photos of their deceased loved ones. One of the biggest non-nuclear explosions ever, the blast was caused by the detonation of a stockpile of ammonium nitrate improperly stored at the port for years. It was so powerful that buildings were affected more than 12 miles away, and the tremor was felt on the island of Cyprus, 165 miles across the Mediterranean Sea. “We raise a voice of anger against all officials, whoever they may be, wherever they may be and no matter their status, who are obstructing the investigation as if it were a trivial accident,” Cardinal Rai said. He noted that church officials repeatedly had “called for an international investigation … as the crime may be a crime against humanity in the event that it is found to be a premeditated act.” “The state does not have the right, on the one hand, to refuse an international investigation, and on the other, to block the national investigation,” Cardinal Rai said. “History will not forget all those who sought to erase the truth of the crime of the century and the right of the people to justice,” the cardinal said. “God will condemn those responsible.” “With this memorial service, we wish to add our voice to that of the families of the victims and martyrs, to the voice of the wounded and disabled, and to the voice of those affected,” he said.

by cpj.org — On the evening of Wednesday, August 3, a group of men in the village of Beit Yahoun, in southern Lebanon, attacked Shaaban while he was walking his dog and threatened to kill him, according to multiple news reports, a statement by a local press freedom group, and the journalist, who spoke to CPJ in a phone interview. On Thursday morning, Shaaban found a bullet left on the window of his car, images of which he posted to Facebook; he told CPJ he saw it as a threat against his life. Shaaban works as a freelance photographer, and has contributed to the U.S. outlet Bloomberg as well as the regional outlets The Daily Star, Middle East Eye, Lorient Today, and Al-Modon, he told CPJ. He recently covered protests over water shortages in Beit Yahoun, and said he was sure that the attack and threats stemmed from that reporting. “The attack on Lebanese photojournalist Hasan Shaaban and the threats to his life are deeply alarming, and authorities should investigate them at once,” said CPJ’s Middle East and North Africa program coordinator, Sherif Mansour, in Washington D.C. “Authorities should ensure that those responsible do not escape justice, and must protect Shaaban and all other journalists covering protests and other sensitive issues throughout the country.”

On Wednesday evening, a man approached Shaaban and told him and his dog to leave Beit Yahoun, the journalist told CPJ. After the journalist refused, that man returned with seven other men, and one slapped Shaaban in the face, another punched him, and as the journalist fled the scene, the men followed him, knocked him to the ground, and beat, punched, and kicked him, Shaaban told CPJ. The attack stopped when one of the men said, “that’s enough,” and one of the attackers told Shaaban, “If we ever see you back here, we’ll kill you.” Shaaban told CPJ that, while the men did not say why they were attacking him, he believed it was retaliation for photos and videos of those protests he published on his personal Facebook page, where he has about 1,700 followers and frequently posts his reporting. Those posts, which included clips of locals criticizing the local political parties Amal and Hezbollah, were later cited in local media reports, he said. He told CPJ that he knew the men who attacked him, and they were supporters of Hezbollah. “If there was another reason, they would’ve done it before,” he said. “This is clearly because the reporting went viral.”

by diplomatie.gouv.fr — Two years after the Beirut port explosion on August 4, 2020, France expresses its total solidarity with the Lebanese people. We stand with the victims’ families and loved ones, whose memory we still cherish in Lebanon and France. Those responsible must be held accountable. The Lebanese judiciary must be able to conduct […]

by NADIA AL-FAOUR — arabnews — DUBAI: Two years ago, on Aug. 4, 2020, Ghassan Hasrouty walked into his office at the port of Beirut where he had worked a steady job for the past 38 years. He would not return home that day. At 6:07 p.m. local time, hundreds of tons of hazardously stored ammonium nitrate ignited in Warehouse 12 where Hasrouty was working. He and several of his colleagues were killed instantly. The third biggest non-nuclear explosion ever recorded in history devastated the port and a whole district of the Lebanese capital. At least 220 people were killed, more than 7,000 wounded, and a city already in the throes of economic and political crisis was left paralyzed under a mushroom cloud of pink smoke. “The investigation of the port explosion will be transparent. Take five days, and any officials involved will be held accountable,” Mohammed Fahmi, Lebanon’s interior minister at the time, said after the blast. And yet, two years on, as families still reel from the loss of their homes, businesses and loved ones, the official Lebanese state’s investigation remains stagnant.

On July 31, part of the port’s now grimly iconic grain silos collapsed, sending a cloud of dust over the capital, reviving traumatic memories of the blast. The Lebanese Cabinet recently approved plans for the controlled demolition of the silos, which were badly damaged but miraculously survived the 2020 blast, having sustained much of its force. The decision has sparked outrage among Beirut residents and victims’ support groups who have called for the silos to be preserved until a full and proper investigation into the blast is concluded. Many place the blame for the blast and its aftermath on corruption and mismanagement within the Lebanese government. With a status quo originating from the days of the 1975 to 1990 civil war, which has rendered those in power effectively untouchable, the inquiry has descended into little more than a finger-pointing match as it moves from one presiding judge to the next. With that, politicians have effectively ensured the complete impunity of officials who have long been wanted for questioning, arrest and prosecution.

By Najia Houssari — BEIRUT: The celebration of the 77th Lebanese Army Day on Monday witnessed over 40 female officers graduating from the Lebanese Army Military Academy. Female officer Lt. Angie Khoury was the top cadet in this year’s graduating class. She read out the oath and all graduates repeated it after her. The gender split reflects “the progress of Lebanese society and the change in the stereotypical picture of women,” said the National Commission for Lebanese Women in a statement. “It also shows that the Lebanese Army appreciates women’s capabilities and qualifications, and opens the door for them to reach decision-making positions in the fields of security and defense,” the commission added.

Women’s access to senior positions in state security is one of the envisaged objectives in the national plan to implement the UN Security Council decision 1325 on women, peace and security. A ministerial decree was issued in 1989 including applicable provisions related to the recruitment and service of Lebanese women in the army, in line with women’s rights to equality, in addition to a defense law that grants all Lebanese the right to volunteer to serve in their country’s military. Over time, women’s roles were no longer limited to administrative work. According to the Lebanese Army’s Orientation Directorate, today “women occupy many positions in combat units and they proved their success in all tasks assigned to them.” The total number of women who graduated from the academy reached 46 out of 121 graduates — 40 from the ground forces, four from the air forces, and two from the maritime forces.

BEIRUT, (Reuters) – The World Bank accused Lebanese politicians of being cruel by asserting that deposits in the country’s collapsed banking sector are sacred, saying such slogans “flagrantly contradict the reality” in a report on Wednesday. Lebanon is in the third year of a financial meltdown that has left eight in ten people poor and which the World Bank says is deliberate and may be one of the three worst in modern times. The new report marked the second time this year the World Bank has berated Lebanon’s ruling politicians, having accused them in January of “orchestrating” the country’s catastrophic economic meltdown through their exploitative grip on resources.

The collapse has frozen depositors out of savings in the paralysed banking system, and led the local currency to lose more than 90% of its value. “Political slogans for the sacrosanct of deposits are hollow and opportunistic; in fact, the constant abuse of this term by politicians is cruel,” the World Bank said in a report. “Not only does it flagrantly contradict reality, it prevents solutions to protect most, if not all small and medium depositors, in dollars and in cash,” the report said. Lebanese politicians often say depositors’ rights must be preserved in any plan to address losses of some $70 billion in the financial system, even as their savings have lost around 80% of their value due to the collapse. “Losses should have been accepted and carried by bank shareholders and large creditors, who have profited greatly over the last 30 years from a very unequal economic model,” the World Bank said. “This should have occurred at beginning of the crisis … to limit the economic and social pain.”

by thenationalnews.com — Almost two years ago, an explosion at Beirut’s port ripped through the Lebanese capital, killing more than 200 people. It was the largest non-nuclear explosion in history. It was caused by a stock of ammonium nitrate – mostly used as a fertiliser – that caught fire. In the aftermath of the explosion, it became clear that failings by senior officials, who should have known about the dangerous, large and poorly stored stockpile, paved the way for the blast. Two years on, the twisted remains of grain silos at the port, which became a symbol of the blast, are still there, as are much of the contents they stored, now rotting. On Sunday, footage emerged online showing clouds of smoke across the port as parts of the facility fell down. They had been on fire for three weeks before their ultimate demise.

Silos at Beirut port begin to crumble after week-long fire. The state of the silos mirrors the wider circumstances of Lebanon today. Severe, sudden shocks might happen from time to time, but the main problem for the country is still a long-recognised and seemingly unstoppable decline. It is the result of corruption, inaction and mismanagement from political elites, as well as destabilising foreign influence. The silos should have been torn down already, let alone rebuilt. Instead, nature is completing a dangerous job that should be the responsibility of the state, which has become ineffective through a total breakdown in governance and an absence of accountability. The content of the silos, hazardous rotting grain, is also symbolic, this time of the critical food crisis facing the country.

BEIRUT, (Reuters) By Timour Azhari – Lebanon’s top prosecutor has lifted his seizure order on a ship accused by Ukraine of carrying stolen flour and barley, allowing it to sail after finding “no criminal offence committed”, a senior judicial source told Reuters. The ship, the Laodicea, remains unable to sail for the time being due to another seizure order issued by a judge in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli, where the ship is docked, on Monday, the source said. That seizure order was only valid for 72 hours, the judge who issued it previously told Reuters.

However, the Laodicea cannot immediately leave the port of Tripoli because a judge ordered Monday that it may not sail for 72 hours at the request of Ukrainian authorities. If the judge does not extend the order, the ship could sail in two days, a move likely to anger Ukraine. A Lebanese port official confirmed that the ship is still in Tripoli and will only sail if its gets clearance from the judge of urgent matters by Thursday. The Russian Embassy has told Lebanese media that the Ukrainian claim was “baseless.” The U.S. Treasury Department had sanctioned the Laodicea in 2015 for its affiliation with the Syrian government of President Bashar Assad, an ally of Russia. According to the Ukraine Embassy, the Laodicea is among scores of vessels that Kyiv alleges have transported grain stolen by Russia.

An official at the Ukrainian Embassy in Beirut said he could not immediately comment, and that the embassy would hold a news conference on Wednesday. Ukraine has said that the Syrian-flagged ship was carrying some 10,000 tonnes of flour and barley plundered by Russia from Ukrainian stores following its February invasion of the country. The Russian Embassy in Lebanon has said it had no information on the cargo. Moscow has previously denied stealing Ukrainian grain. An official from the company that owns the cargo previously denied it was stolen and said that the ship would sail to nearby Syria should it be allowed to leave Tripoli. The Laodicea arrived in Lebanon on July 27 and two days later top prosecutor Ghassan Oueidat ordered it seized pending investigations following a protest from the Ukrainian embassy and other Western nations.

by presidency.gov.lb — President of the Republic, General Michel Aoun, asserted that the celebration of Army Day comes this year in difficult circumstances the country is going through, under the weight of the accelerating regional and international developments in light of the widening life and economic difficulties faced by the military, and a large segment of the Lebanese. The President also stressed that he spares no effort to alleviate these difficulties within the available capabilities, and strives to keep Lebanon away from all interactions and influences. President Aoun noted that in parallel with Lebanon’s keenness to maintain calm and stability on its southern borders and stressed “Concern for our rights in our territorial waters and natural resources, which are rights that cannot be tolerated under any consideration”.

The President stated that “The on-going indirect negotiations to demarcate southern maritime borders’ first and last goal, is to preserve Lebanon’s rights, and to reach, through cooperation with the American mediator, conclusions that protect our rights and wealth, and achieve, upon the conclusion of negotiations, an opportunity to restore the economic situation in the country. “From my position, and as a reflection of my assumption of my constitutional responsibilities, I reiterate that, as I committed to holding the parliamentary elections, I will work with all my might, in order to provide the appropriate conditions for the election of a new president who will continue the arduous reform process that we have begun” President Aoun said. On the other hand, President Aoun indicated that “This national achievement can only be achieved if the new parliament, president and members, assumes its responsibilities in choosing whom the Lebanese find the personality and the appropriate qualifications to assume this responsibility”. In this context, President Aoun hoped that “The fate of the presidential elections will not be similar to the fate of forming the new government”, stressing that “The failure to form a government exposes the country to further turmoil and deepens economic and financial difficulties. The responsibility of those concerned is essential in preventing the country from further deterioration and slack”.