Beirut detains Lebanese-French businessman close to Sarkozy after Interpol request

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by AFP --- Lebanon has detained a Lebanese-French businessman who was close to former French president Nicolas Sarkozy after receiving a request for his arrest from Interpol, a judicial source told AFP Friday. "Internal security forces have detained (Ziad) Takieddine, based on an arrest warrant Interpol sent the public prosecution, over him being wanted by the French authorities over involvement in corruption and funding Sarkozy's campaign," the source said. Takieddine was once the main accuser in an inquiry into suspected Libyan financing of Sarkozy's 2007 election campaign. The businessman was investigated in late 2016 after he told the press he had delivered millions of euros in cash from Libyan dictator Moamer Kadhafi.

Sarkozy caught a break last month when Takieddine suddenly retracted his claim. The 70-year-old businessman fled to Beirut after a French court in June condemned him to five years in jail in a separate case involving millions of euros in kickbacks from arms sales to Pakistan and Saudi Arabia signed in 1994. The judicial source said Takieddine was being questioned by the security forces under a judge's supervision and would be transferred to the general prosecution for further investigation on Monday. If the charges against him were found to be justified, he could be tried in Lebanon as a Lebanese citizen, or extradited to France, the source said. On Thursday, former French interior minister Claude Gueant was charged with being part of a criminal conspiracy in the case over Libyan funding.

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Lebanon: New aid package is unlikely to lead to reform

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by dw.com -- Foreign donors have said Lebanon needs fundamental reforms before the debt-ridden country gets any more support. But a new international aid package runs the risk of fostering a business-as-usual approach in Beirut. After a video conference involving 32 nations and 12 international organizations, including the United Nations, the European Union and the World Bank, a new package of financial and humanitarian aid for Lebanon was agreed on. The explosion of ammonium nitrate stored in the Lebanese capital, Beirut's port in early August was just the latest blow to the country, where a political and economic crisis has been ongoing. Following a financial crisis in 2019, popular protests against a government widely perceived as corrupt and ineffective began in mid-October that year. The Beirut port explosion, which killed over 200 and did over $4 billion worth of damage, led to eventual resignation of the prime minister and his Cabinet. A new government has yet to be formed. Since 2019, inflation has soared as has unemployment and locals living in poverty. The value of the Lebanese pound has plummeted, and local banks have restricted cash withdrawals. The COVID-19 pandemic has only exacerbated Lebanon's problems and some now call this the worst crisis the country has faced since its 15-year civil war ended in 1990.

Lebanon to get fresh funds

Last night's decision to establish a new fund — the Reform, Recovery and Reconstruction framework, or 3RF for short — will see Lebanon receive additional funds. Details of the fund and how it will be managed are to be announced on Friday. According to the French government, more than €280 million($338 million ) in emergency aid have already been handed out, after the first donor conference, held immediately after the port explosion. Now, member states of the European Union alone are pledging a further €100 million, on top of the almost €70 million handed out already, European Council President Charles Michel said in a statement. French President Emmanuel Macron has been pressuring Lebanese officials to reform and will visit the country again later this month. He has previously said that until the political problems at the heart of the Lebanese financial crisis are solved, the country should not get a bailout.

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U.S. Fears Syria’s Assad Meddling in Fragile Lebanon

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BY JACK DETSCH -- foreignpolicy.com -- The Trump administration is worried that Syria’s Bashar al-Assad regime is working to undermine neighboring Lebanon by driving up exchange rates for its weakened currency and ratcheting up influence on the fragile government through Iran-backed Hezbollah, according to a State Department finding shared with Congress this summer and obtained by Foreign Policy. Under pressure from U.S. and international sanctions over its human rights abuses and chemical weapons use during the nearly decadelong Syrian civil war, the Assad regime has long been dependent on siphoning money from the Lebanese banking system and smuggling the cash across the border along with fuel, flour, and wheat, experts said, something that Lebanon’s authorities have had trouble preventing. ,

“The Assad regime continues to exert influence inside the Lebanese government through Hizballah and other political allies, undermining Lebanon’s independence and sovereignty. Such influence poses significant challenges to Lebanon’s stability,” the report says. “The Assad regime contributed to Lebanon’s recent economic collapse by attempting to extract as much foreign currency from the Lebanese market as possible, making dollars very scarce in Lebanon and driving up the exchange rate for the Lebanese lira.” Lebanon’s currency has seen an 80 percent devaluation in the past year, a drop that has pushed many skilled workers, such as doctors, to leave the country.

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Donors grow increasingly impatient with Lebanese politicians

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by NAJIA HOUSSARI -- arabnews.com -- BEIRUT: As the UN hosted a second International Conference on Assistance and Support to Beirut on Wednesday, there was growing impatience among donors with Lebanese politicians. The virtual event, chaired by French President Emmanuel Macron and UN Secretary-General António Guterres, aimed to coordinate international aid efforts in support of the Lebanese people as the country continues to face political, economic and social challenges. The participants — including heads of state, international organizations, donors, NGOs and civil-society representatives — discussed the results of the first conference, which was organized by France after the Beirut port explosion and held on Aug. 9. It resulted in pledges of aid worth about $300 million in a fund managed by the World Bank that will be channeled through UN agencies and NGOs rather than Lebanese state institutions.

However, delegates expressed impatience with the failure of political factions in Lebanon to resolve their differences and work together for the good of their country. Four months after the Aug. 4 explosion in Beirut, and the subsequent resignation of Hassan Diab’s government, a new government has yet to be formed, delaying the economic and political reforms needed to begin efforts to resolve the financial crisis. According to Reuters, the French presidency on Wednesday said: “No measures required in the French road map for Lebanon have been implemented and the Lebanese Central Bank’s accounts haven’t been audited.” It added: “American sanctions imposed on the Lebanese political class have not had any effect so far and will not help in forming a government.” This came after the leak of a conversation in which Dorothy Shea, the US ambassador to Lebanon, asked Nabih Berri, speaker of the Lebanese parliament, to “distance himself from Hezbollah.” She also hinted that “Washington will reject any government in which Hezbollah is represented and there won’t be any foreign aid without radical change.”

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US clears weapon sales for Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Croatia, Canada, Brazil and South Korea

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by defensenews.com - Aaron Mehta -- WASHINGTON — The U.S. State Department on Tuesday cleared six Foreign Military Sales cases, potentially worth a combined total of $1.55 billion. The six cases, spread across South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Croatia, Lebanon and Canada, were announced on the website of the Defense Security Cooperation Agency. DSCA announcements mean that the State Department has decided the potential FMS cases meet its standards, but this does not guarantee the sales will happen in their announced forms. Once approved by Congress, the foreign customer begins to negotiate on price and quantity, both of which can change during the final negotiations. Here are the details on each case:

Lebanon: The country seeks to spend $55.5 million to procure 300 M1152 High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles in two tranches of 150 each. Beirut currently operates more than 1,000 HMMWVs of various designs, according to the DSCA, which are primarily used to “counter violent extremist organizations and to secure its border.” The primary contractor would be American General, with work happening in its South Bend, Indiana, facility. This is the first FMS case cleared for Lebanon since the start of the Trump administration.

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Report: Iran Commander Visited Lebanon, Asked Nasrallah Not to Provoke Israel

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by naharnet -- The new chief of Iran's Quds Force, General Esmail Ghaani, asked Hizbullah during a recent secret visit to Lebanon to “avoid provoking Israel,” a media report said on Monday. “Ghaani, who succeeded General Qasem Soleimani as the head of the Quds Force, the elite unit of Iranian Revolutionary Guards in charge of foreign operations, has paid a secret visit to the southern suburbs of Beirut in recent days and has spoken with (Hizbullah chief Sayyed) Hassan Nasrallah and other political and military officials of the party,” Lebanon’s French-language daily L'Orient-Le Jour reported. “The Iranian official stressed the need to remain on alert for any eventuality, while telling his interlocutors that it was necessary to avoid any action that could be seen as escalation and exploited by Israel to launch a major operation,” the newspaper added. Two senior Iraqi Shiite politicians had recently told the Associated Press that Ghaani had visited Iraq in recent weeks to tell Iranian-backed Iraqi militia factions and Shiite politicians to avoid provoking tensions with the U.S. that could give an outgoing Trump administration cause to launch attacks in the U.S. president's final weeks in office. Around that time, Nasrallah himself warned followers and allies to be vigilant during Trump's remaining time in power. "All of us ... should be on high alert in these next two months so that it passes peacefully," Nasrallah said in televised remarks earlier this month even as he urged followers to "be prepared to face any danger, aggression or harm" and to respond in kind "if the U.S. or Israel's follies go that far."