Lebanon pins hope on summer arrivals to save hospitality sector

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by middle-east-online.com -- NIHA - In a village in Lebanon’s scenic Chouf Mountains, 69-year-old Chafik Mershad pulls out a massive rectangular guestbook and reads out despairingly the date when he hosted his last visitor: November 16, 2019. A month earlier, anti-government protests had exploded across the country over taxes and a deteriorating currency crisis. Amid such uncertainty, few people visited his guesthouse. Then came the coronavirus and subsequent government-imposed lockdowns. The guesthouse officially closed its doors in February 2020. A year and a half later, he still has no plans to reopen amid the country’s current financial meltdown. “Corona really affected us, but the biggest thing was the currency crisis,” Mershad said, speaking at his home above the guesthouse. “We used to offer meals for guests with Nescafe, tea, whatever they wanted for a cheap price. Now, one hamburger patty costs that much.”

The dual shocks of the pandemic and a devastating financial crisis have gutted the hospitality sector of this Mediterranean nation, known for its beaches, mountain resorts and good food. Hundreds of businesses, including guesthouses like the Mershad Guesthouse, have been forced to close. But as pandemic restrictions are being eased, the businesses that survived hope the dollars spent by visiting Lebanese expats and an increase in domestic tourism can get the wheels of the economy moving again. Currently, most hotel reservations are from Lebanese expats and some foreigners from neighboring Iraq, Egypt and Jordan. Airport arrivals are picking up: Every day for the past several weeks, the Beirut Airport has had four flights coming from Iraq, with more than 700 passengers in total, according to Jean Abboud, president of the Travel and Tourist Agents Union. Chaotic scenes have been reported at the arrivals lounge as people crowd for the obligatory PCR test.

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Medicine shortage in Lebanon puts patients on brink of death

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By NAJIA HOUSSARI -- arabnews.com -- BEIRUT: Doctors and pharmacists raised their voices on Monday in protest against the lack of medicine amid the deteriorating Lebanese currency crisis. In a growing spate of crises, shortages of fuel and medicine continued over the weekend. These materials, as well as the food supply, are imported. Food prices have soared. The price of sunflower oil has jumped by over 1,100 percent since the summer of 2019. The price of beef and rice has risen by 627 percent and 545 percent respectively over the same period. The price of eggs has shot up by 450 percent, with labneh (Strained yogurt) costs jumping 275 percent. Lebanese TV and social media circulated images of people screaming in the streets for milk and medicine, and electricity to save seriously ill children, who need oxygen devices in their homes.

Pharmacist Samer Soubra told Arab News: “People come to the pharmacy to ask for simple medicines, such as ear drops, but I do not have them.” Soubra added: “I think that importers have a stockpile of medicines, but they refrain from distributing them to put pressure on the Banque du Liban to continue subsidizing medicine. “There is no political decision yet to lift subsidies on medicine. It’s chaos. “I expect within 10 days the scream will rise because sick people will get worse without treatment.” Dr. Ismail Sukkarieh, a gastroenterologist, told Arab News: “A colleague of mine, a cardiologist, was not able to install a spring into a patient’s artery because there was no blood thinner and left him at the mercy of those who trade in people’s health.” Dr. Sukkarieh pointed out that “the most missing medicines are those related to arterial hypertension and blood clots, and we do not know the reason.” He asked: “How can I believe the importers who say that their drug stores are empty? It is a blackmail operation against the Banque du Liban.” Dr. Sukkarieh held “those concerned with resolving the drug crisis responsible for any harm to, or death of any patient.”

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Lebanon risks exhausting drug supply amid lack of foreign exchange

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by middleeastmonitor.com -- Lebanon is suffering from an acute shortage of imported drugs, particularly for chronic diseases, amid a lack of foreign exchange in the country, Lebanese pharmaceutical importers warned on Sunday, reports Anadolu Agency. "The importing companies have run out of hundreds of essential medicines that treat chronic and incurable diseases," the Syndicate of Lebanese Pharmaceutical Importers said in a statement, noting that this situation has been ongoing for weeks. The body warned that "hundreds of other medicines will run out of stock during the current month of July" if the import of medicines does not resume immediately. Lebanese health officials said in early June that the country was missing 70% of its medicines and medical supplies. The syndicate also pointed out that importers continue to supply the market with a few medicines they still have in stock without interruption. For a year and a half, Lebanon has been witnessing a severe economic crisis, bringing the country on the verge of a financial collapse.

Lebanese leaders can’t halt the oncoming electoral tsunami

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By BARIA ALAMUDDIN -- arabnews.com -- If we don’t believe in change, we will never witness it. One of the principal obstacles to the revolutionary transformations required for Lebanon to survive as a state is the cynicism that perceives real change to be impossible — that corrupt elites will always cling to power, and nothing can be done about Hezbollah’s traitorous agenda. A symbolic blow was struck against this prevailing cynicism when Beirut’s Engineers Syndicate elected its general assembly. Despite supposed rivals such as the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), the Future Movement, Hezbollah and the Lebanese Forces collaborating in a ploy to retain control, they were swept aside, as nearly 80 percent of votes went to “Syndicate Revolts” candidates affiliated with the uprising. If the votes of 60,000 engineers from across Lebanon’s social spectrum can be replicated in national elections, the mind boggles at the implications!

We have run out of adjectives to adequately describe the rage and despair felt by ordinary Lebanese. All conventional factions have suffered crippling blows to popularity and credibility, and President Aoun, Gebran Bassil and the FPM have found that the depths of public enmity and loathing they command are practically limitless. Even Hezbollah and Amal, whose grassroots support was always taken for granted, have encountered unprecedented disenchantment. In an indication of how far the political class has fallen, investigating judge Tariq Bitar announced legal proceedings last week against a range of politicians, including acting Prime Minister Hassan Diab, over last year’s Beirut port explosion. It is thus no surprise that established factions are keen to see elections delayed for as long as possible, despite intense popular demands that they should be held immediately, as possibly the only route out of the crisis. Experts fear there will be efforts to delay the vote beyond the constitutionally mandated date of May 2022.

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President Michel Sleiman: إنقاذ لبنان وتحريره من قبضة "حزب الله"

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حينها، يتمكّن اللبنانيون من إنتاج قيادات سياسية جديدة، فيما تشفى القيادات السياسية القديمة من "متلازمة الترهيب"، وحينها، أيضاً يستطيع لبنان أن ينأى بنفسه عن حروب المنطق  وصراعاتها، وفق مفهوم "إعلان بعبدا" أو "اقتراح" البطريرك الماروني بشارة الراعي، فتعود الدولة اللبنانية إلى منظومة الصداقة لتلك الدول التي كانت يوماً تنقذ لبنان من كبواته المالية والاقتصادية.

لقد شهد هذا الأسبوع، إطلالات عدة لرئيس الجمهورية السابق ميشال سليمان، خصّصها كلّها للحديث عن الرابط الجوهري بين إنقاذ لبنان وتحريره من قبضة "حزب الله"، مؤكّداً أنّ الحل في لبنان يبدأ بتأطير دور "حزب الله" وسلاحه.

البعض يتجاوز ما يقوله سليمان على اعتبار أنّه فشل في تحقيق ذلك، عندما كان رئيساً للجمهورية، ولكنّ هؤلاء يركّزون على الشخص حتى يتم التغاضي عن أنّ سليمان، بعد سنوات طويلة في قيادة الجيش وأربع سنوات في القصر الجمهوري، توصّل إلى قناعة بأنّ الدولة و"حزب الله"، بصيغته الحالية، نقيضان لا يمكن أن يتعايشا معاً.

وسليمان كان رئيس الجمهورية الوحيد الذي تجرّأ على إعلان هذه الحقيقة، من موقعه الدستوري، فشنّ عليه "حزب الله" والملحقون به حملات متتالية لشيطنته.

وعليه، فإنّ كل المبادرات والتفاهمات إذا لم تمر بهذا المعبر الإلزامي تكون "حركة بلا بركة"، ولا تتّخذ من التجارب عبرة، وتُبقي البلاد والعباد في دوّامة واحدة من أسوأ الكوارث التي شهدها العالم، في القرنين الأخيرين.

https://www.alhurra.com/different-angle/2021/07/02/لبنان-

Lebanese judge takes aim at top politicians, officials over Beirut port blast

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By Najia Houssari - arabnews.com -- BEIRUT: The Lebanese judge investigating the Beirut port disaster last year said on Friday he would move to prosecute the country’s outgoing prime minister, Hassan Diab, and that he had taken steps toward indicting several other former ministers, security officials and members of the judiciary. Around 3,000 of tons of ammonium nitrate fertilizer exploded on Aug. 4, 2020, killing over 120 people, injuring more than 6,000 and ravaging swathes of the capital, in the midst of the coronavirus disease pandemic and a crippling financial crisis, causing the spotlight to fall on systemic corruption and mismanagement across all levels of Lebanon’s ruling class.

Judge Tariq Bitar began launching prosecutions on Friday, having taken evidence from witnesses for several months. As well as Diab, who has been summoned for preliminary questioning by Bitar, former Finance Minister Ali Hasan Khalil, former Minister of Defense and Public Works Ghazi Zaiter, former Interior Minister Nouhad Al-Mashnouq and Yusef Fenianos, the former transport and public works minister, are also set to face charges, with the judge formally requesting, through the Office of the Special Public Prosecutor, that their immunity from prosecution be lifted.

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