Month: December 2022

Interior Minister Announces Security Plan During Upcoming Holidays
According to L’Orient Today, “A national security plan in Lebanon was announced Wednesday by caretaker Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi ahead of  Christmas and New Year’s Eve holidays, as Lebanon continues to struggle with an unprecedented economic crisis.The date of the beginning of the plan was not communicated by the minister, but Mawlawi said it will remain in effect until Jan. 1.” [L’Orient Today]

Hezbollah Secretary General to Meet with Former President, Head of FPM Amid Reports of Their Fragile Alliance
According to Naharnet, “Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah will meet with ex-president Michel Aoun and Free Patriotic Movement leader Jebran Bassil upon the latter’s return from Qatar, informed ministerial sources said. The meeting will likely be held within a week to ‘put an end to the crisis between the two parties,’ the sources told ad-Diyar newspaper in remarks published Wednesday.” [Naharnet] Hezbollah is designated as a terrorist group by the United States. 

UK Commits to Additional £13 million for Lebanese Armed Forces
According to Naharnet, “The British Ambassador to Lebanon, Hamish Cowell, has announced a £13 million commitment to ‘support the Lebanese Armed Forces’ (LAF) resilience from 2022 till 2025 in a Memorandum of Understanding signed with LAF Commander in Chief General Joseph Aoun,’ the British embassy said.” [Naharnet]

Deputy Speaker of Parliament: ‘Dialogue’ Over President Unlikely Before End of Year
According to Naharnet, “Deputy Speaker Elias Bou Saab met Wednesday with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri in Ain el-Tineh. After the meeting, Bou Saab said that it is not likely for a dialogue to be held before the end of the year.” [Naharnet]

Ministry of Health Reports Zero Cholera Cases in 24 Hours
According to The 961, “Lebanon’s Ministry of Health reported on Tuesday that no new cholera cases or deaths have been recorded within the past 24 hours. Since the beginning of the outbreak in October, Lebanon has recorded 658 cases and 23 deaths. However, the Ministry suspects around 4,900 cases.” [The 961]

AbiNader writes, “More than half of the country’s professional healthcare staff have chosen to emigrate, if they have not done so already, seeking better earnings so that they may feed their families and send their children to school. This has been the situation since the Beirut Port blast and the economic implosion that has left Lebanon dependent on international aid and remittances from overseas. Even if the government begins a process of paying its arrears, most hospitals are refusing to admit patients knowing that the country is bankrupt and neither the availability nor affordability of medical care will change soon.”

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Moussallem writes, “While there is no standardized consensus on which nations have fallen into the failed category, experts have created indexes of ‘fragile states’ to measure countries that have the worst-performing governments. The grading, however, undergoes the same difficulties as other forms of rankings. John Yoo, a law professor at the University of California, argues that ‘there will be disputes about the dysfunctional nature of a nation’s governmental institutions or the severity of internal armed conflicts.’ The ranking may also treat cases differently depending on the cause of the state’s decline. Unlike its neighbors, discussing corruption in Lebanon has rarely been a taboo subject. Technically speaking, Lebanon is well past an inflection point, it is falling further in real time. By every indicator, it is deteriorating. The World Bank has said the country’s economic and financial calamities could possibly be among the top three most severe crises episodes globally since the mid-nineteenth century. This clearly shows how highly corrupt countries are incapable of functioning efficiently or flourishing effectively at an economic level, causing societal suffering and instability within the entire governing system.” 

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Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy
The IMF and Social Welfare in MENA: Prospects for Alleviating Crises in Egypt, Tunisia, and Lebanon
Thursday, December 15th, 2022 | 11:00 AM ET | Zoom Webinar

On Thursday, December 15 at 11:00am EST, the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy (TIMEP) is pleased to host a virtual discussion featuring Hussein Cheaito, Aymen Bessalah, Salma Hussein, and Timothy Kaldas, and moderated by The Independent’s Bel Trew in which panelists will unpack: What do we know so far about the IMF’s staff-level agreements with Tunisia, Lebanon, and Egypt? How will these programs affect social protections and welfare in these countries? And most importantly: how will these agreements impact ordinary people’s lives?

Register Here

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Speaker Berri Calls Off ‘Dialogue’, Proceeds with Presidential Session
According to Naharnet, “On Tuesday, [Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri] officially called for a presidential election session on Thursday, after the LF said in a statement that turning the election session into a dialogue would be a clear disruption to a constitutional requirement, asking Berri to withdraw his call for dialogue and to call instead for open sessions until a president is elected.” [Naharnet]

FPM-Led Bloc Pursues Legislation Investigating BDL Governor 
According to Naharnet, “Twelve lawmakers from the Free Patriotic Movement-led Strong Lebanon bloc on Tuesday submitted a draft law aimed at ‘forming a parliamentary panel of inquiry into the offenses committed by Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh’.” [Naharnet]

NGO Issues Latest Report Outlining Severity of Economic Crisis
According to the L’Orient Today, “The report [from Human Rights Watch], based on a survey of 1,209 households conducted between November 2021 and January 2022, underlines the depths to which Lebanon has sunk amid a three-year economic crisis that the World Bank has called one of the worst globally since the mid-nineteenth century.” [L’Orient Today]

Depositor’s Group Protests Parliamentary Discussion of Capital Controls
According to the L’Orient Today, “The Mouttahidoun depositors group held a sit-in Monday in front of Parliament during a joint parliamentary committee session to discuss a capital control draft law to which the group objects in its current form. The parliamentary committees have been discussing the capital control law since more than two years ago but are yet to approve it. Speaking at the sit-in, the head of Mouttahidoun (‘United’ in Arabic) Rami Ollaik called on the ‘syndicates, the parties and independent MPs to cooperate with each other to rebuild this country in which we all should partner against corruption’.” [L’Orient Today]

AbiNader writes, “More than half of the country’s professional healthcare staff have chosen to emigrate, if they have not done so already, seeking better earnings so that they may feed their families and send their children to school. This has been the situation since the Beirut Port blast and the economic implosion that has left Lebanon dependent on international aid and remittances from overseas. Even if the government begins a process of paying its arrears, most hospitals are refusing to admit patients knowing that the country is bankrupt and neither the availability nor affordability of medical care will change soon.”

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Nassar and Barakat write, “In this Policy Brief, LCPS researchers Fadi Nicholas Nassar and Christelle Barakat examine the impact of the protracted economic crisis on Lebanese children, focusing on the deprivation of their rights according to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. They offer some urgent recommendations to policy makers to protect vulnerable children and avoid a social crisis for generations to come.”

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Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy
The IMF and Social Welfare in MENA: Prospects for Alleviating Crises in Egypt, Tunisia, and Lebanon
Thursday, December 15th, 2022 | 11:00 AM ET | Zoom Webinar

On Thursday, December 15 at 11:00am EST, the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy (TIMEP) is pleased to host a virtual discussion featuring Hussein Cheaito, Aymen Bessalah, Salma Hussein, and Timothy Kaldas, and moderated by The Independent’s Bel Trew in which panelists will unpack: What do we know so far about the IMF’s staff-level agreements with Tunisia, Lebanon, and Egypt? How will these programs affect social protections and welfare in these countries? And most importantly: how will these agreements impact ordinary people’s lives?

Register Here

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Lebanese Parliament Fails to Elect a President
According to the National, “A Lebanese court handed a man known as the ‘Captagon King’ a seven-year sentence with hard labour on Thursday for producing and trafficking the illegal drug, a judicial source told AFP. This is the first time a major drug baron has been convicted in a Captagon case in Lebanon.” [The National]

Lebanese Prosecutor Orders Security Forces to Bring Lebanese Actress in for Questioning in Connection with Probe of BDL Governor
According to Reuters, “A Lebanese prosecutor said on Thursday she had ordered security forces to bring in for questioning a Lebanese actress for whom central bank chief Riad Salameh was suspected of buying luxury property using ill-gotten gains.” [Reuters]

‘Captagon King’ Sentenced to Seven Years of Hard Labor
According to the National, “A Lebanese court handed a man known as the ‘Captagon King’ a seven-year sentence with hard labour on Thursday for producing and trafficking the illegal drug, a judicial source told AFP. This is the first time a major drug baron has been convicted in a Captagon case in Lebanon.”  [The National]

Nasrallah Responds to Bassil’s Remarks
According to the L’Orient Today, “Hezbollah rejected on Thursday criticism apparently leveled at it two days ago by its Christian ally, the head of the Free Patriotic Movement, Gebran Bassil, who appeared to accused the party, without explicitly naming it, of having “broken an agreement” regarding the boycott of cabinet meetings called by caretakter Prime Minister Najib Mikati. In a rare statement, the party led by Hassan Nasrallah also denied having promised Bassil that the government ministers affiliated to it ‘would boycott urgent government meetings if the FPM ministers are absent’.” [L’Orient Today]

Mroue writes, “Lebanon’s once burgeoning banking sector has been hard hit by the country’s historic economic meltdown. It has suffered staggering losses worth tens of billions of dollars and many of the small nation’s lenders now face possible closures or mergers. Yet bankers have been resisting attempts to make their shareholders assume responsibility for those losses and instead have been trying to shift the burden to the government or even their own depositors. The country’s political class, blamed for decades of corruption and mismanagement that led to the meltdown, has also resisted reforms. Restructuring the banking sector is a key demand of the International Monetary Fund to start getting Lebanon out of its paralyzing financial crisis. The proposed IMF reforms will likely force most of the country’s 46 banks — a huge number for a nation of 5 million people — to close down or merge.”

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“Judges have suspended their work as rampant inflation eats away at their salaries, paralysing the judiciary and leaving detainees in limbo — the latest outcome of Lebanon’s years-long financial crisis . . . Bureaucracy and rampant corruption have long delayed verdicts and judicial proceedings in Lebanon, where 8,000 people are estimated to be jailed, most of them awaiting a verdict. But now, underfunded public institutions have taken a hit after the country’s economy went into free-fall in 2019, with basic state services like renewing passports or completing a real estate transaction often taking months to complete. Although judges’ salaries are expected to triple as part of Lebanon’s 2022 budget, their wages are currently worth only around $160 on average due to soaring inflation.”

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Zahrani Power Plant Remains Shut Down Since Sunday
According to L’Orient Today, “Multiple 220-kilowatt electricity stations — which supply several areas in Lebanon, including the southern suburbs of Beirut, Ras Beirut and Saida — have been inoperable since Sunday following a shutdown of the Zahrani power plant.” [L’Orient Today]

FPM Head Characterizes Monday’s Cabinet Session as ‘Unconstitutional’, Signaling Political Shift
According to L’Orient Today, “Gebran Bassil, leader of the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), said in a press conference on Tuesday that Monday’s cabinet meeting was ‘unconstitutional, illegal and unconventional,’ threatening that his party could deviate from its ally Hezbollah’s blank vote strategy during presidential electoral sessions in Parliament.” [L’Orient Today]

Qatari Officials Reportedly Backing General Joseph Aoun For President
According to Naharnet, “Qatar has ‘strongly’ waded into the Lebanese presidential file in terms of negotiating with Iran, sources involved in the file said. ‘It had told Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil during his recent presence in Doha that it supports the election as president of Army chief General Joseph Aoun,’ the sources told ad-Diyar newspaper in remarks published Wednesday.” [Naharnet]

Prosecutor Ghada Aoun Publicizes List of Lebanese Depositors with Frozen Swiss Bank Accounts, Walid Jumblatt Files Lawsuit in Response
According to the L’Orient Today “The head of the Progressive Socialist Party Walid Joumblatt on Tuesday filed a lawsuit against the public prosecutor at the Mount Lebanon Court of Appeal, Judge Ghada Aoun, after the latter shared a picture of a list of names of individuals whose deposits in Switzerland were allegedly frozen by the United States, PSP MP Bilal Abdallah confirmed to L’Orient Today. The shared list included Joumblatt’s name.” [L’Orient Today]

Houssari writes, “The Free Patriotic Movement’s anger over caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati convening a Cabinet session on Monday led to a shakeup in the relationship between the party and its ally, Hezbollah.
FPM head Gebran Bassil, in a press conference on Tuesday, expressed anger over ‘expanded decentralization, even without laws.’ Hezbollah and the Amal Movement provided political cover for Mikati to convene a Cabinet session to approve the process of securing medicines for dialysis and cancer patients, which Mikati deems an absolute necessity. The FPM refuses to hold any Cabinet session in light of the presidential vacuum in order to prevent Mikati from exercising the powers of the Christian president, especially since the movement believes the caretaker government has no right to play this role. As the country experiences a devastating economic crisis, eight attempts by Lebanon’s divided parliament to elect a president have failed after the term of President Micael Aoun ended over a month ago.”

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Assaf writes, “Scandals in public administration are one after another. After last month’s corruption case at the Vehicle Registration Center, in which dozens of employees were arrested, a new Pandora’s box is opening in broad daylight, this time in Mount Lebanon. For nearly two weeks, the Mount Lebanon prosecution at the Court of Appeal has been examining information about embezzlement perpetrated by employees of the land department, especially in Baabda and Metn, who reportedly amassed huge sums through bribes taken from taxpayers. With the help of security services, prosecutors are collecting evidence that would enable them to arrest employees and brokers.”

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Parliament Postpones Session to Discuss Corruption Allegations in Telecommunications Sector
According to L’Orient Today, “The parliamentary session scheduled for Wednesday to discuss the thorny issue of corruption allegations in the telecommunications sector was postponed, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri’s office said in a statement on Tuesday.” [L’Orient Today]

Finance and Budget Committee Convenes, Discusses Salary Taxes and Other Measures
According to Naharnet, “The Finance and Budget parliamentary committee, headed by MP Ibrahim Kanaan, convened Tuesday to discuss circulars and decisions issued by Finance Minister Youssef Khalil. After listening to the minister, the committee decided to delay the implementation of two salary taxes resolutions.” [Naharnet]

Mercy Corps Report Says Lebanon Most Remittance-Dependent Country in the World 
According to the National “The Mercy Corps’ 2021 findings [showing Lebanon as the most remittance-dependent country in the world] are in stark contrast to the previous year when Lebanon ranked as the 12th-most remittance-dependent nation globally. The report, published on Tuesday, defines the struggling country’s dependence on remittances as a coping strategy in the absence of political decisions to enact a recovery plan or bring about economic reforms.” [The National]

Reports of Political Tension between FPM and other Political Groups Over Constitutional Crisis
According to Naharnet, “Will (caretaker) PM (Najib) Mikati settle for the signatures of the ministers who attended the session, adopting a constitutional interpretation that says that the signatures of two thirds of ministers are enough to cover for the president’s signature?’ the sources wondered in remarks to al-Binaa newspaper published Tuesday. The sources reminded that the governments that existed following the tenures of each of Emile Lahoud and Michel Suleiman had established a “norm” stipulating that the signatures of ‘all ministers’ are necessary to substitute for the president’s signature during a presidential void period.” [Naharnet]

Antonios writes, “For several weeks, prisoners’ relatives have been denouncing on social media the outbreak of numerous skin diseases in Lebanon’s prisons, especially in Roumieh (the largest prison in the country). Denouncing the atrocious health conditions of the prison environment, these images show men with pimples from head to toe and others suffering from gaping and pustular wounds on the arms, legs or soles of the feet. Diseases are ‘due to the quality of the water that is dirty and polluted in Roumieh,’ and ‘the lack of care,’ according to some prisoners who spoke to L’Orient-Le Jour.” 

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Taha writes, “Public e-procurement is the application of information and communication technology, such as internet-based systems, by governments in conducting their procurement relationship with bidders to meet the public sector’s needs of goods and services. In Lebanon, Public Procurement Law No. 244/2021 (PPL) laid the foundation for a gradual transformation of public procurement into a digitized process. Article 66 of the law creates the central electronic platform that should host all public procurement activities and which will be managed and owned by the Public Procurement Authority (PPA). There are doubts, however, about the capacity of government institutions to transition to an electronic procurement system. Moreover, past attempts to digitize the public sector and institute e-governance are not encouraging, as most were discontinued. Skepticism is especially more pronounced in the case of municipalities, which are experiencing a sharp drop in their revenues and a widening set of other social and economic challenges, primarily due to Lebanon’s ongoing financial meltdown.”

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Lebanese Cabinet Reconvenes Despite Calls for Boycott
According to Naharnet, “The caretaker cabinet convened Monday morning at the Grand Serail after two ministers defied a declared Free Patriotic Movement boycott and secured quorum for a session described by caretaker PM Najib Mikati as an emergency meeting.” [Naharnet]

Civil Society Organizations File Legal Petitions to US Treasury, EU Bodies Urging Sanctions Against Political Leaders
According to the National “A Swiss foundation and a Lebanese NGO on Monday sought to pressure western countries into imposing sanctions on Lebanese leaders by filing legal petitions at the US Treasury and two European Union bodies, three years into the small Mediterranean country’s worst-ever economic meltdown.” [The National]

UNHCR Calls for Support for Lebanon, Refugees
According to Naharnet, “The United Nations’ refugee agency chief has called for sustained support for Syrian refugees in Lebanon and vulnerable Lebanese citizens, three years after the country’s economy began collapsing.” [Naharnet]

Lebanese Ministry of Tourism Projects 700k Visitors This Winter, $1.5 Billion ‘Cash Boost’ 
According to Arab News, “Lebanon was on Monday preparing for a much-needed $1.5 billion cash injection with tourist chiefs predicting an influx of around 700,000 visitors over the coming days. With the festive holiday season fast-approaching, hoteliers were reporting an upsurge in bookings on last year as the country temporarily began to put its economic and political woes to one side.”  [Arab News]

Azhari and Bassam write, “The formerly middle-income country’s financial system imploded in 2019, leading to a currency crash that the United Nations says has dragged four out of five residents into poverty. A study by pollsters Gallup released last December, found nearly three in four people polled in Lebanon experienced stress “a lot of the day” during the previous day – a new high in its 16 years measuring trends in the country. Some 63% said they would leave the country permanently if they could . . . Economists say it will deepen as long as politicians delay passing reforms agreed with the International Monetary Fund in April and required to unlock billions of dollars in aid. Basic state services have crumbled, subsidies on almost all goods have been removed and tens of thousands of Lebanese have left the country seeking jobs abroad in the biggest emigration wave since the 1975-90 civil war.”

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Chatah writes, “Parliamentary systems allow for majority coalitions to govern, made up of parties that are not always required to get along — let alone agree on every issue. The whole purpose of crossing a majority threshold (in Lebanon’s case 64 seats out of a 128-seat chamber) is to set aside smaller differences and work together through an alliance. In other words, compromise. No minority bloc can go it alone, and politics requires cooperation. Yet in Lebanon’s case, national unity consensus — often a result of geopolitical factors and regional settlement — places groups across the political spectrum, together, in a status quo best described as paralysis.“

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