Lebanon ‘is a hostage to the veto power’ of Hezbollah, says Lebanese economist Nadim Shehadi

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arabnews.com -- DUBAI: Eighteen years ago this month, Rafik Hariri, a prominent politician and former prime minister of Lebanon, was assassinated by a suicide truck bomb in Beirut. Originally a philanthropist before his engagement in politics, Hariri, who had made his fortune in construction, donated millions of dollars to victims of war and conflict in Lebanon, and later played a major role in ending the civil war and rebuilding the capital city. Hariri’s assassination marked the beginning of dramatic political change and movements calling for democracy in Lebanon. For years after his assassination, politicians and important figures opposed to the influence of both Syria and Hezbollah in the country were targeted. Despite an international tribunal finding members of Hezbollah guilty of Hariri’s assassination after passionate calls for an investigation into his death, the Iran-backed militia group has only tightened its grip on Lebanon, keeping the country in a dire state. “Hariri was killed 18 years ago and it took about 15 years to destroy the whole country after everything he tried to build,” Lebanese economist Nadim Shehadi said on “Frankly Speaking,” the Arab News current affairs talk show which engages with leading policymakers and business leaders. “The Special Tribunal for Lebanon and the independent international investigation commission came to Lebanon, and it took them about 15 years to produce their result. And for the first time in the history of Lebanon, where we have had several assassinations, for the first time, we had a conviction,” Shehadi said.

But according to him, despite a conviction in Hariri’s case, Hezbollah’s influence over Lebanon means that the real perpetrators of the assassination will go unpunished, and the group will continue to hold the country hostage. Lebanon’s various political and economic crises have only intensified in recent years, with inflation in the country rising to the highest in the world in 2021 and the value of the Lebanese lira plummeting drastically. Last year witnessed a series of bank holdups by armed customers seeking to withdraw their frozen deposits. In a country whose capital was formerly referred to as the “Paris of the East,” two-thirds of the population now suffers from poverty, with regular electricity blackouts and shortages of basic necessities such as medicine and water increasingly commonplace.

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Survey of Lebanon offshore gas field promises ‘positive results’

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By Najia Houssari -- Arabnews.com -- BEIRUT: The outlook for Lebanon’s Qana gas field project appears promising, caretaker Energy Minister Walid Fayyad said on Friday as authorities race against time to resume exploration work after demarcating the maritime borders with Israel in October. Fayyad visited the Janus 2 ship at Beirut port, brought by TotalEnergies and its partners Eni and QatarEnergy to complete environmental surveys of the offshore Block 9 in the exclusive economic zone in preparation for oil and gas exploration. “We expect positive results from the survey, but we must be realistic and await discovery,” Fayyad said. During the past few days, Israel announced the start of its commercial production in the Karish field. The Janus 2 has completed an eight-day mission during which it collected images of the seabed, and took samples of water and sediment. It also monitored marine life in the area, providing data for an environmental impact assessment study, an essential step before drilling under international and local law.

The Lebanese are pinning their hopes on a successful exploration that will unlock oil and gas reserves worth billions, helping to revive the country’s faltering economy. The local currency has lost over 120 percent of its value during the past three years. The pound fell to 82,000 to the dollar on Friday, a day after protesters attacked banks and blocked roads in a display of anger over the deteriorating economy and sharp rises in the price of essential items.

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Two Lebanese MPs are protesting the mess created by their government, and deserve support

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By James Zogby -- thenationalnews.com -- Several weeks ago, I wrote an article outlining a radical proposal Ralph Nader and I put forward for discussion. The proposal called on Lebanon’s civil society to petition the UN to declare Lebanon a “failed state” requiring international intervention. Many readers commented favourably on the idea, also registering their frustration with Lebanon’s corruption and dysfunction. Others noted that, although the idea was worth considering, they believed that it would never pass the Security Council. The point of the proposal, however, was not to present a fait accompli. Rather, it was to spur exactly the type of discussion that ensued.

What’s clear is that Lebanon is broken, and its people are suffering. Its governing institutions aren’t functioning, and its traditional leadership appears incapable of meeting the challenges confronting the country. Evidence of this dysfunction is the fact that for the past four months Lebanon’s Parliament has been unable to elect a president. In the face of this paralysis, we have witnessed a courageous and important step being taken by a group of newly elected members of the Lebanese Parliament, who have been conducting a protest sit-in, now in its fourth week, at Beirut’s Parliament building. Led by two of the independent “Forces of Change” group of newly electeds, Najat Saliba and Melhem Khalaf, the protesters are calling on their colleagues to convene and fulfil their responsibility to elect a president so that at least a semblance of a functioning government can be formed.

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candidate Michel Moawad on putting ego aside to prevent 'chaos'

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By Jamie Prentis - the nationalnews.com -- The circus over who will become Lebanon’s next president continues to scale new heights. Speaker Nabih Berri has even stopped scheduling presidential sessions in the deeply divided 128-seat legislature, while two new MPs are holding an indefinite sit-in in parliament in a bid to find a successor to Michel Aoun. And then, on Monday, representatives of the US, France, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Egypt warned Prime Minister Najib Mikati — whose cabinet is in a caretaker role — that they would reconsider “all ties” if Lebanon failed to elect a president. The governance vacuum comes at a time when Lebanon finds itself entrenched in one of the worst economic crisis in modern history, blamed on decades of corruption and mismanagement by the country’s elite.

What next for Lebanon's opposition in presidential race, Michel Moawad or Plan B? Amid the deadlock, one name has stood out from the rest in the 11 parliamentary sessions. Michel Moawad has consistently courted the support of a third of parliament — a long way off the two-thirds majority required in the first round and the absolute majority needed in subsequent sessions in the same round — but his voice still carries weight. Mr Moawad is very open in saying that he would happily stand aside for another candidate if they are able to secure more votes and have the credentials he supports. Mr Moawad is very open in saying that he would happily stand aside for another candidate if they are able to secure more votes and have the credentials he supports. “Having a president is extremely important,” he told The National from his office in Baabda, minutes away from the presidential palace that Mr Aoun departed from in October. “But … it’s not the election of any president. It’s the election of a president that is sovereigntist, that is reformist, and that is ready to tackle clearly the issues and problems that have led Lebanon to the total collapse that we are living in today.”

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Lebanese religious leader slams politicians’ abuse of ‘power, influence’ over election of new president

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By Najla Houssari -- arabnews.com -- In his Sunday sermon, Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros Al-Rahi said the Arab and international communities condemned their “corruption,” adding that parliament should convene as soon as possible and decide on a new presidential head. He said: “Yes, the president is a Maronite, but the voters are not all Maronites and Christians. “Indeed, Christian leaders are responsible for the presidential vacuum, but the greater responsibility rests with others. Christians cannot agree over the identity of the president while others cannot agree over the identity of the republic. “We are thus keen not to harm the identity of neither the president nor the republic because they are a guarantee of Lebanon’s unity.” Referring to the parliamentarians, he added: “Are you respecting your top constitutional responsibility of electing a president who legislates the work of parliament and the government? Are you carrying out the internationally required reforms? “Are you letting the judiciary carry out its duties and investigate the Beirut port explosion to reveal the truth and implement justice? “Are you implementing the measures expected from the International Monetary Fund and the international community? “Are you achieving the state of law and eliminating chaos, the proliferation of illegal weapons, and the law of the jungle? “Are you consolidating Lebanon’s sovereignty over all its lands and establishing its independence?”

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Lebanese cental bank chief Salameh says he will not seek new term

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by reuters -- BEIRUT: Lebanon’s veteran central bank chief Riad Salameh said he would not seek a new term in office once his latest six-year stint at the head of the Banque du Liban ends. “My decision is that, at the end of the term, it will be a page I turned in my life and I will move to work outside the central bank,” Salameh told Saudi Arabia-based Asharq News. Salameh’s term is set to end in July. Lebanese political sources say that there is not yet consensus around a replacement to Salameh, who has held his post for three-decades and retains the support of some of Lebanon’s most powerful politicians, including House Speaker Nabih Berri.