Israel Rejects Lebanon’s Amendments to Maritime Border Proposal According to Reuters, “Lebanon said U.S.-brokered talks to demarcate its maritime border with longtime foe Israel were at a ‘make or break’ point on Thursday after Israel rejected revisions to a draft deal requested by Beirut, throwing years of diplomatic efforts into doubt. The draft, which has not been made public, had a warm preliminary reception from the Israeli and Lebanese governments. But amid domestic opposition in both countries, Lebanon on Tuesday sought amendments from the U.S. envoy.” [Reuters]
Speaker of Parliament Calls for Third Parliamentary Session for Presidential Election, October 13 According to Al Arabiya English, “Lebanese House Speaker Nabih Berri has set a new parliament session to elect a head of state on Oct. 13, just a few weeks before President Michel Aoun’s six-year term ends, though it is not expected to yield results.” [Al Arabiya English]
Lebanese Court Fines, Issues Travel Ban on Bank Heist Depositor Sali Hafez According to AP News, “A Lebanese judge on Thursday fined and issued a six-month travel ban to [Sali Hafez] a woman who stormed her bank with a fake pistol and took her trapped savings to cover her sister’s cancer treatment[, inspiring similar incidents at bank branches all over the country, immediately following her heist.]” [AP News]
Lebanon Announces First Cholera Case in 30 Years According to AP News, “Lebanon’s health ministry on Thursday announced the crisis-hit country’s first case of cholera in decades. The announcement comes as neighboring war-torn Syria is struggling to contain a cholera outbreak that has spread across the country over the past month.” [AP News]
OPINION & ANALYSIS
“Here, You Can Only Expect Help From God” Jean AbiNader
AbiNader writes, “When I first visited Lebanon in the early 70s, I came with my mother’s stories of tasty, larger-than-life produce born from the tradition of small-scale, farming that historically fed the nation. Like others, my family had moved from silk production, to tobacco, to fresh produce that always found its way to a ready market in neighboring Batroun. Based on these vivid memories, I had high expectations and was pleased to be fully rewarded by the vitality and scope of the Lebanese markets. Then came the civil war. With young people emigrating to the Gulf and West Africa, farming became an illusory pursuit – abandoned to the greenhouses that dotted the fields and hills as one traveled north and east from Beirut. Lebanese could buy whatever they wanted to consume thanks to the inflated currency and the supply chains that seemed to crisscross the region, bringing products to vendors on every corner. Since then, the decline of the agri-business sector has both changed the country-side as well as options for the future. As in other countries, young people have no interest in finding opportunities in agriculture despite the usual availability of all the productive and marketing inputs. In fact, the Lebanese Center for Policy Studies (LCPS) addressed the prospects for Lebanon’s agro-economy in several studies done in the last decade that indicated the competitiveness of Lebanese fruits and vegetables. Since then, with the onset of the pandemic and subsequent global supply-chain issues, additional studies point to the multiplicity of benefits from supporting an active agro-economy – not only for farmers, but also for the country.”
Arab News Israeli Refusal Of Lebanon’s Revisions Threatens Maritime Border Demarcation Agreement Najia Houssari
Houssari writes, “Israel rejected revisions requested by Lebanon to a US-brokered border demarcation proposal on Thursday, throwing into doubt years of diplomatic efforts to enable the two countries to extract gas in a disputed part of the Mediterranean. Lebanese President Michel Aoun said the revisions made by Lebanon on the deal with Israel guarantee Lebanon’s rights to explore for oil and gas in the fields specified in the exclusive economic zone. He added Lebanon’s revisions prevent any interpretations that do not apply to the framework that Lebanon specified for the demarcation process during the indirect, months-long negotiations handled by the US mediator, Amos Hochstein. Israel announced on Thursday that it rejects the amendments requested by Lebanon to the US proposal . . . Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz warned: ‘The state of Lebanon will bear a heavy military price if Hezbollah attacks and the maritime border demarcation agreement with Lebanon will harm Iran’s interests’.”
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in these articles are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of the American Task Force on Lebanon, a non-profit, nonpartisan leadership organization of Lebanese-Americans.
