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Why Beirut Museum of Art project is a beacon of hope in crisis-plagued Lebanon

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By Rawaa Talass -- arabnews.com -- DUBAI: For many Lebanese, the past can be a painful subject. A civil war destroyed large swaths of the country between 1975 and 1990. The postwar period has been marked by sectarian strife and government dysfunction. But in spite of the traumas of recent decades, Lebanon remains a land of immense cultural wealth, with a rich history reflected in its architectural, cultural and anthropological heritage. This is why the Beirut Museum of Art, or BeMA, which is due to open in 2026, has been billed as a “beacon of hope” in a country beset by political paralysis, economic decline and a worsening humanitarian crisis.

When Sandra Abou Nader and Rita Nammour launched the museum project, their goal was to showcase the wide diversity of Lebanese art and provide facilities for education, digitization, restoration, storage and artist-in-residency programs. “They realized that there was, in fact, very little visibility for the Lebanese artistic scene, within the country and abroad, and for Lebanese artists, whether modern or contemporary,” BeMA’s art consultant, Juliana Khalaf, told Arab News. About 700 works of art will be on display at the new venue, drawn from the Lebanese Ministry of Culture’s collection of more than 2,000 pieces, the bulk of which have been in storage for decades. “We are going to be housing this very important collection,” said Khalaf. “We call it the national collection and it belongs to the public. It’s our role to make it, for the very first time, accessible. It’s never been seen before.”

Lebanon recovery plan includes central bank debt write-off, haircuts to depositors

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(Reuters) By Maya Gebeily, Timour Azhari and Laila Bassam - Lebanon's government foresees cancelling "a large part" of the central bank's foreign currency obligations to commercial banks and dissolving non-viable banks by November, according to a financial recovery plan passed by the Cabinet on Friday. The document, seen by Reuters and verified as accurate by a minister, was passed by the Cabinet in its final session hours before losing decision-making powers, following the election of a new parliament on May 15.

It includes several measures that are prerequisites to unlock funds from a preliminary deal with the International Monetary Fund agreed in April that could help pull the country out of a three-year financial meltdown. Deputy Prime Minister Saade Chami said approval of the plan was a "step forward" but that Lebanon's newly-elected parliament must "quickly" adopt a number of the IMF prior actions, such as amendments to banking secrecy regulations and a capital controls bill that lawmakers have repeatedly failed to endorse. "We can put things on paper but we have to ensure whatever we committed to is being executed in the future," Chami said. "I cannot predict whether they will do it or not, whether there is a political will to do it."

Lebanon’s FPM deny losing Christian majority setting parliament for showdown

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By Nada Homsi -- .thenationalnews.com -- The Lebanese Forces say it is the largest Christian party in parliament for the first time — but they are not the only ones to make the claim. Their rivals, the Hezbollah-allied Free Patriotic Movement, have long been the largest Christian bloc and say they retained the majority. The competing claims appear to set the battle lines ahead of the presidential election in October when MPs have the often contentious vote for Lebanon's highest-ranking Christian official. Although alliances will likely shift and settle once the new parliament convenes and begins its work, the electoral results show a lead for the Lebanese Forces, who scored 22 seats to the Free Patriotic Movement's 18. Ultimately, it was not the startling upset the Lebanese Forces had hoped for and with only four seats separating the two parties.

More broadly, the picture is repeated. The pro-Hezbollah parties, including Free Patriotic Movement, scored 59 seats — five short of a majority in the 128 seat cross-confessional parliament. While the pro-Hezbollah faction is a generally cohesive alliance, the groups that now make up the majority of seats are an array of parties like the Lebanese Forces, smaller factions, independents and the emerging opposition groups who gained 13 seats who have no such consensus of views.

Bassil claims Free Patriotic Movement still top

Despite the numbers appearing to show the Lebanese Forces' marginal lead among Christian parties — and its party head Samir Geagea declaring the victory — Free Patriotic Movement head Gebran Bassil also said they had remained the largest Christian bloc. However, he said there were more important things to work on than squabbling about winners and losers. “The truth is that today is not the time to flex about who has the majority,” he said. “It’s time to work hard and get results to fix the country.” While the Iran-backed Hezbollah and its allies, of which the Free Patriotic Movement is a major partner, suffered losses compared to the 2018 elections, the most startling development was the unprecedented 12 seats won by civil society opposition groups.

Lebanon election results 2022 in full: which candidates and parties won?

World Bank, UN grant $10 mn to mitigate impact of Beirut port blasts

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by business-standard.com -- A new $10 million grant will help Lebanon mitigate the environmental and health impacts of the Beirut port explosions on the neighbouring population and support Beirut's reconstruction, the UN said in a statement. The grant given through the Beirut Critical Environment Recovery, Restoration and Waste Management Program, was agreed on Wednesday between the World Bank and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in the presence of Lebanon's Environment Minister Nasser Yassin, Xinhua news agency reported. "This project will implement environmental recovery activities in the city of Beirut to mitigate risks of a solid waste crisis and other environmental impacts which resulted from the Port of Beirut explosion," said Saroj Kumar Jha, World Bank Mashreq Regional Director.

For her part, Melanie Hauenstein, UNDP Resident Representative, said addressing the impacts of the port explosion on the environment and people's health is of the utmost importance. According to an assessment, physical damages to the Lebanese environment sector were about $20 to $25 million and the recovery and reconstruction needs were estimated at $75 to $100 million.

U.S. sanctions Lebanese businessman, his companies over Hezbollah links

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WASHINGTON, (Reuters) - The U.S. Treasury Department on Thursday issued new Hezbollah-related sanctions, designating Lebanese businessman and the Iran-backed group's financial facilitator, Ahmad Jalal Reda Abdallah, and his companies. Abdallah, five of his associates and eight of his companies in Lebanon and Iraq were sanctioned and added to the sanctions list of the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, the department said. Abdallah is a Hezbollah official and an active member of its global financial network, according to the Treasury. He has supported Hezbollah for decades, carrying out commercial activities in various countries where the profits are transferred to the Iran-backed group, the department said.

Founded in 1982 by Iran's Revolutionary Guards and classified by the United States and other Western countries as a "terrorist organization," Hezbollah is a powerful group in Lebanon because of a heavily armed militia that fought several wars with Israel. It grew stronger after joining the war in Syria in 2012 in support of President Bashar al-Assad. The United States said Abdallah used his senior employees and relatives to establish new businesses throughout the Middle East on behalf of Hezbollah. Hezbollah on Sunday faced an electoral setback when the group and its allies lost their parliamentary majority in elections in Lebanon

Minister Sejaan Azzi: الأكثريّةُ أرْخَبيلٌ والأقليّةُ جزيرة

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@AzziSejean

رَبِـحْتم، ربِّـحوا البلد. خَسِرتُم، لا تُـخَسِّروا البلد. عظمةُ الديمقراطيّةِ أنّها تساوي في المسؤوليّةِ الرابِـحين والخاسِرين. للأوّلين تَقول الديمقراطيّةُ: "كونوا متواضِعين في انتصارِكم وحُكْمِكم"، وللآخرين: "كونوا نبلاءَ في خَسارتِكم ومعارضَتِكم". لحظةُ الانتصارِ أربعٌ وعشرون ساعةً تتبدّدُ بعد النشوة، ولحظةُ المسؤوليّةِ أربعُ سنواتٍ تبقى للمحاسَبةِ أربعينَ سنة. لا تَبحثوا عن الأكثريّةِ الفعليّةِ في المجلسِ النيابي، فهي موجودةٌ في مكانٍ آخَر، في الّذين قاطَعوا الانتخابات.

الفائزون والخاسرون في انتخاباتِ 15 أيار يُمثّلون معًا نحو 41% فقط من الشعب، بينما المقاطعون يُمثّلون وَحدَهم نحو 59%. لكنَّ دورَ المجلسِ النيابيِّ الجديدِ ــــ وهو كاملُ الشرعيّة ــــ أن يُجسِّدَ صوتَ المقترِعين وصوتَ المقاطِعين لأنَّ المقاطعةَ هي صوتٌ مُمتَنعٌ. المقترِعون والمقاطِعون يَنتمون إلى الاتّجاهاتِ السياسيّةِ ذاتِها. طرفٌ فَضَّلَ التعبيرَ عن موقفِه اقتراعًا وآخَرُ ارْتأى التعبيرَ عنه امتناعًا. ليس هذا الواقعُ سِمةَ الحياةِ السياسيّةِ اللبنانيّةِ وحدها، فهو يَنتشرُ في غالِبيّةِ الديمقراطيّاتِ الذابِلةِ حيث الشعوبُ لا تأمَلُ جديدًا من أنظمتِها.

MP Cheikh Farid Haykal el Khazen from Bkerke stressed for a defense strategy as outline by the Maronite Patriarch

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MP Farid Haykal el Khazen stressed after his visit to his Eminence the Cardinal Maronite Partriarch Bechara el Rai the national constants related to Lebanon's unity, as well as the project and proposals of Maronite Patriarch Bechara Rai related to reforms and defense strategy, which are aimed at confining arms to the Lebanese army and bringing all parties together. "We are approaching a difficult stage, and Lebanon is in ruins, but we can revive the country through dialogue, understanding, and extending a hand."