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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