Lebanon’s Tourism Ministry woos Arab travelers

Upcoming television campaign seeks to reassure Gulf tourists

By Will Rasmussen

BEIRUT: Lebanon is a place where diverse religious communities mingle in harmony, enjoying long, leisurely summer evenings at open-air restaurants along charming cobbled boulevards.

That, at least, is the Tourism Ministry’s message to the Gulf, to be aired in 30-second television advertisements in a new promotional campaign beginning next week.

Long focused on luring Europeans to Lebanon’s beaches and mountains, the Tourism Ministry is now looking eastward, worried that news of bombings and civil strife might deter deep-pocketed Gulf Arabs from visiting Lebanon this summer.

Lebanon must face up to its economic problems

Editor’s note: What follows are abridged extracts from the economic program of the Lebanese National Bloc, one of the country’s opposition groups, outlining what Lebanon must do to overhaul its economy and place it on a stable platform for future investment and development. The party proposes a series of measures to reduce public debt and stimulate the economy along with plans to improve the country’s education system and improve women’s rights. Its proposals are a timely reminder of the many economic problems facing Lebanon, which to date few politicians have seen fit to discuss during the current election campaign.

A number of our proposals have been discussed by previous governments and others but never implemented due to the archaic nature of Lebanese politics, made worse by 30 years of Syrian domination, a situation that thwarted any post war national growth. Simply by eliminating waste, fighting corruption and implementing already approved projects, Lebanon can make an immediate change for the better. However, this will not happen unless competent and credible leaders make it happen.

Analysis: Lebanon poll unites ex-rivals

BEIRUT, Lebanon — “It is very hard to accept. But if this is the price to protect Lebanon’s unity, I will vote for the Christian Lebanese Forces candidate though it is against my heart,” said Salah Haidar, a 45-year-old Druze from the Shouf Mountains.

Haidar, like many Druze and Sunni Muslims, has found it hard to accept that their leaders, in a last-minute compromise, included Christian candidates on their electoral lists. For them Christians symbolize the bloody 1975-90 civil war.

On Sunday, Druze leader Walid Jumblat announced that his eight-member list from the Shouf Mountains for the June 12 election will include George Adwan, a known member of the Lebanese Forces militia that battled Druze fighters in the “War of the Mountains” in 1983. 
     
Jumblat said Adwan’s selection did not only reflect an electoral alliance with the Lebanese Forces but also “an eagerness (to preserve) the big national reconciliation” that was achieved in 2001 when Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Boutros Sfeir visited the Druze-controlled Shouf Mountains region.

Slain ex-PM’s son sees opposition landslide in Lebanon polls

BEIRUT (AFP) – Saad Hariri, whose father Rafiq was assassinated in a February bomb blast that revitalized Lebanon’s anti-Syrian opposition, predicted that it would win a landslide in parliamentary elections later this month.

In an interview with AFP, Hariri pledged a “white revolution against the police state which governed Lebanon during 15 years” — a reference to Syria and its allies.

“The opposition will win between 80 and 90 seats,” in the 128-member parliament in the elections due to kick off on May 29, he said.

Hariri, 35, announced on Sunday a list of 19 candidates for Beirut’s three multi-member constituencies, which will be the first to go to the polls in Lebanon’s phased elections.

What is Public Debt ?

Public debt (“Government debt”, “national debt”) is money owed by government, at any level (central government, federal government, national government, municipal government, local government, regional government). It’s possible to consider this an indirect debt of the tax payers.

Government debt can be divided into internal debt, owed to lenders within the country, and external debt, owed to foreign lenders. It consists of government bonds, bank loans, and according to some measures, unfunded liabilities such as pension plan payments and goods and services the government has contracted for but not yet paid.

Another common division of government debt is by duration: Short term debt is generally considered to be five years or less, long term is more than ten years. Medium term debt falls in the middle.

EU poll observers start Lebanon mission

BEIRUT, Lebanon — The European Union’s Elections Observation Mission kicked off in Lebanon Monday as 26 observers were deployed to various parts of the country.

“Our election observation mission will be made up of 100 observers. Already 26 long-term monitors were deployed this morning across the country,” Mission Chief Jose Ignacio Salafranca of Spain told reporters.   
     
The observers were dispatched to Lebanon as a result of an agreement between the EU and Lebanese government.

Foes unite as Lebanon election campaign kicks off

By Hala Boncompagni , Middle East Times

BEIRUT —  Campaigning kicked off on May 16 for parliamentary elections in Lebanon as former civil war foes formed unlikely political alliances.

The influential head of the Maronite Church, meanwhile, reiterated calls for efforts to ensure that the polls are representative of Lebanon’s different sects.

In a move seen by the press as a step toward the first genuine attempt at national reconciliation since the end of the 1975-90 civil war, Druze chief Walid Jumblatt and Sunni leader Saad Al Hariri joined forces with former foes.

Jumblatt and Sitrida Geagea, wife of the jailed leader of the disbanded Lebanese Forces Christian militia, Samir Geagea, have formed an alliance and announced a joint electoral list, pledging to “turn the page on the past”.

Lebanon’s parliamentary polls kick off with three uncontested seats in Beirut

BEIRUT: Lebanon’s parliamentary elections kicked off ahead of schedule over the weekend as three uncontested seats in Beirut returned Druze, Shiite and Maronite MPs ahead of official polls which begin in less than two weeks.

Solange Gemayel, the widow of slain president and Christian warlord Bashir Gemayel, was given  Beirut’s only Maronite Christian seat after sitting MP Ghattas Khoury, a member of the parliamentary bloc of slain former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, withdrew to allow her to join the candidate list of Hariri’s son, Saad.

The third Maronite candidate, Beirut municipal council member Georges Tyan, also withdrew yesterday morning leaving Gemayel the sole candidate.

Son of Slain Lebanon Leader to Seek Post

By HUSSEIN DAKROUB, Associated Press Writer

BEIRUT, Lebanon – A son of slain former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri promised Sunday to achieve his father’s plan for a sovereign Lebanon and formally announced a list of candidates for Beirut’s 19 parliamentary seats.

In an apparent swipe at Syria, which dominated Lebanon’s politics for nearly three decades before withdrawing its troops last month, Saad Hariri told a crowd of hundreds that every vote is a “vote against the criminals who killed Rafik Hariri and tried to enslave Lebanon.”

Meanwhile, the Druse leader Walid Jumblatt announced an election coalition with his former civil war enemies, the Lebanese Forces, who were the nation’s most powerful Christian militia during the 1975-90 civil war.

Central Bank: Lebanon’s debt rises $1 billion

Lebanon’s total public debt rose to the equivalent of $33.9 billion by the end of February from $32.9 billion a month earlier, the Central Bank said in its monthly bulletin.

External public debt comprised $18.99 billion of the total. However, banking sources estimate the debt now stands at $35 billion. In official figures also released Saturday, the bank said Lebanon recorded a $777.4 million balance of payments deficit in the first two months of 2005, compared with a surplus of $203 million in the same period last year. It recorded a $784.6 million deficit in February alone. Banque du Liban said the deficit reflected a drop in its net foreign assets but an increase in those of banks and financial institutions.