Lebanon Watch Thread

[Yuli Ban]

Lebanon is grappling with the worst economic and financial crisis — one that the World Bank has said is likely to rank as one of the worst the world has seen in the past 150 years

Lebanon’s economy ministry on Tuesday raised the price of subsidized bread for the fifth time in a year as the country’s multiple crises worsen with no resolution in sight.

The ministry said the reason behind the latest increase — an 18% hike from the last raise in February — was the central bank’s ending of sugar subsidies, which in turn adds to the cost of bread production.

Lebanon is grappling with the worst economic and financial crisis in its modern history — one that the World Bank has said is likely to rank as one of the worst the world has seen in the past 150 years. The currency has lost 90% of its value, breaking a record low earlier this month of 15,500 Lebanese pounds to the dollar on the black market. The official exchange rate remains 1,507 pounds to the dollar.

The World Bank said in a report this month that Lebanon’s gross domestic product is projected to contract 9.5% in 2021, after shrinking by 20.3% in 2020 and 6.7% the year before.

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World Powers Meet in Berlin to Discuss Libya Crisis
June 23, 2021

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/6/2 ... bya-crisis

Introduction:

(Al Jazeera) World powers have met in Germany to seek lasting peace in Libya by ensuring the conflict-racked North African country stays firmly on the path towards general elections on December 24.

Representatives of Libya’s interim government on Wednesday joined US Secretary of State Antony Blinken as well as the foreign ministers of France and Egypt at the United Nations-sponsored talks in Berlin.

It is crucial that Libya holds a national election in December as the only way to ensure peace and stability in the North African country, Blinken said.
“We share the goal of a sovereign, stable, unified and secure Libya, free from foreign interference,” he said. “For this to happen national elections need to go forward in December. That means urgent agreement is needed on constitutional and legal issues.”

The effort to end a decade-long spiral of violence in Libya is the second round in Berlin, after the first attended by the presidents of Turkey, Russia and France in January 2020.

Edit: This was a filing error. They do both start with "L"

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In Times of Crises, Lebanon’s Elderly Must Fend for Themselves

https://www.aljazeera.com/gallery/2021/ ... themselves

Introduction:

(Al Jazeera) With virtually no national welfare system, Lebanon’s elderly are left to fend for themselves amid their country’s worsening economic catastrophe.

In their prime, they survived 15 years of civil war that started in 1975 and bouts of instability. Now in their later years, many have been thrown into poverty by one of the world’s worst financial crises in the past 150 years.

Lebanon has the greatest number of elderly in the Middle East – 10 percent of the population of six million is over 65. About 80 percent of Lebanese 65 or older have no retirement benefits or healthcare coverage, according to the United Nations’ International Labor Organization.

Family members and charities, traditionally the prime source of support, are struggling with increasing needs as unemployment rises.

Any dollar savings the elderly had from a lifetime of work are locked up in banks, inaccessible in the banking crisis. Savings lost nearly 90 percent of value as the local currency collapsed against the dollar. Imported medicine and basic goods are in jeopardy, and a once-reliable healthcare system is crumbling.

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Lebanon’s Financial Crisis Is So Bad That Soldiers Can't Feed Their Families
by Rebeca Collard
June 30, 2021

https://www.pri.org/stories/2021-06-30/ ... r-families

Introduction:

(NPR) In a video posted online, a Lebanese soldier drives past a mile-long line of cars waiting for fuel and complains that he can’t even get enough gas to drive to his military base.

“I just hope that this message reaches the commander of the army,” said the soldier, who is careful to hide his identity, pointing the camera straight forward with his military fatigues barely visible.

He said he went to a gas station but the owner wouldn’t even give him 20,000 Lebanese pounds worth of fuel — a little more than $1. He called it “a humiliation.”

The Lebanese pound has lost more than 90% of its value, and imports such as medicine, food and fuel are increasingly difficult to procure. These gas lines are a near-constant sight on Lebanon’s roads and highways.

Earlier this month, General Joseph Aoun issued a dire warning about the impact of Lebanon’s economic spiral on the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF).

[Yuli Ban]

[Yuli Ban]

This video and videos like it do help putting a more human face on the crisis that you can't get from cold squiggly lines on your screen.

[Yuli Ban]

[Yuli Ban]

Lebanon’s Collapse Risks Wider Regional Strife

Amidst a turbulent Middle East with an excess of competing priorities for the international community, Lebanon has nearly devolved into a failed state. Yet while it is easy for many to overlook the small eastern Mediterranean country among wider regional issues, considering Lebanon’s state of affairs as an afterthought will have profoundly negative implications with substantial externalities. Certainly, the case of Lebanon is intricately intertwined with Middle Eastern geopolitics—something world leaders must recognize to prevent the coming tragedy that will extend beyond Lebanon’s borders.

The scale of Lebanon’s political and economic issues speaks to the inherent risks of avoiding the issue. A recent World Bank report paints a stark picture: “The Lebanon financial and economic crisis is likely to rank in the top 10, possibly top three, most severe crises episodes globally since the mid-nineteenth century.”

Herein lies the regional connection and wider issue—one of the externalities of state instability. While Syrian refugees cannot be blamed for Lebanon’s problems today—the Lebanese government provides minimal services in the first place—their presence has provided political elites a scapegoat that sows instability between ethnic groups. Further, Syria’s currency crisis is driven by Lebanon’s currency crisis and vice versa. History alone, from the Taif Agreement and Syrian meddling in Lebanon, depicts the truly interconnected nature of the two countries. Ultimately, instability within one state surely produces the same in its neighbor.

Such interconnectedness is tied to wider regional geopolitics

[Yuli Ban]

Lebanon days away from ‘social explosion’, PM Diab warns
World Bank has called Lebanon’s crisis one of worst depressions of modern history as half of population lives in poverty

Lebanon is a few days away from a “social explosion”, caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab has warned, calling on the international community to save a country in deep economic crisis.

The World Bank has called Lebanon’s crisis one of the worst depressions of modern history. The currency has lost more than 90 percent of its value and more than half of the population has been propelled into poverty.

Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr, reporting from Beirut, said the politicians – which many Lebanese hold responsible for running the economy into the ground – are fixated on a power struggle over who will control the next government, and are blaming the international community for not bailing them out.

“These politicians are blaming the international community for demanding that a government that is able and willing to carry out financial and administrative reforms as well as fight corruption is formed before they unlock financial assistance,” she said, speaking from the capital Beirut.

“The country has been in a crisis for more than a year,” she added. “There’s no basic services in this country, no infrastructure.”

A motorcyclist outside a petrol station in Beirut where long queues had formed told Al Jazeera that life in Lebanon had become “hell”.

“We cannot live any more,” he said.

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Revolutionizing Lebanon’s Agriculture Sector as Food Runs Out
by Robert McKelvey
July 6, 2021

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/7/6 ... ure-sector

Introduction:

(Al Jazeera) Beirut, Lebanon – As time runs out for government subsidies in Lebanon, the troubled country faces an uphill battle to keep its population fed as food prices continue to rise, driven up by an ever-deepening liquidity crisis and a severe dependency on imported foreign goods.

Despite having the highest proportion of arable land in the Arab world with more than 200,000 hectares (494,000 acres), Lebanon’s own agricultural sector has gone underfunded and underdeveloped for many years, hindered by a lack of modern equipment and inefficient production techniques.

Now, with Lebanese farmers unable to even cover their own operating costs and the government paralysed by political deadlock, international NGOs such as Anera have been forced to upscale their aid programmes to fight back against the rapid socioeconomic decline.

“I think that Lebanon is a rich country that has not been developed to its potential, and not just in the agricultural sector,” Samar El Yassir, Anera’s Lebanon country director, told Al Jazeera.

“With the bad governance we have instead of optimising our resources many times we are diminishing [them].

An agricultural worker checks cucumber plants in a newly built greenhouse.
[Courtesy: Anera]

[Yuli Ban]

With Lebanon on Brink of Collapse, Israel Does What It Can to Stave Off Iranian Influence

Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz issued an unusual statement Tuesday morning: Due to Lebanon’s severe economic crisis “and Hezbollah’s efforts to bring Iranian investments to Lebanon,” he has sent Beirut an offer of humanitarian aid through UNIFIL, the United Nations Interim Force In Lebanon.

[Yuli Ban]

Lebanon's water supply system is on the verge of total collapse, says UN
More than 71% of the country's population are at immediate risk of losing access to safe water

Lebanon's water supply system is on the verge of total collapse, according to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), in what would mark the latest development in the eastern Mediterranean country's slide into chaos.

More than 71% of the country's population -- over 4 million people including 1 million refugees -- are at immediate risk of losing access to safe water, UNICEF said on Friday.
Water pumping is expected to gradually cease across the country in the next four to six weeks, due to shortages in funding, fuel and other supplies such as chlorine and spare parts, according to the UN agency. Rampant fuel shortages in recent weeks have seen large parts of Lebanon's economy grind to a halt.
"A loss of access to the public water supply could force households to make extremely difficult decisions regarding their basic water, sanitation and hygiene needs," said Yukie Mokuo, UNICEF's representative in Lebanon.

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One-year Anniversary of Beirut Blast Marked by Grief, Anger
by Erin Doherty
August 4, 2021

https://www.axios.com/beirut-blast-expl ... af6d3.html

Introduction:

(Axios) Fluctuating between feelings of sadness, grief and anger, Beirut residents on Wednesday marked the one-year anniversary of the port explosion that killed more than 200 people and injured thousands of others.

The big picture: No senior official has been held accountable for the blast, which was caused by a large amount of ammonium nitrate stored unsafely at the port for years, per Reuters.

• The one-year anniversary of the explosion comes as the country endures ongoing economic and political instability.

Driving the news: An investigation into the blast has stalled as requests to probe senior politicians and former officials have been denied, per Reuters.

[Yuli Ban]

'Nothing left': in crisis-hit Lebanon bread too is scarce

Michael Hamati emerged from a long queue at a Beirut bakery sweat dripping from his forehead, as Lebanon's economic collapse sparks increasing shortages including over bread.
"There's nothing left in this country," said the 72-year-old, as dozens of people clamored behind him in the simmering heat for their turn.
Lebanese flocked to bakeries before dawn on Friday, desperate to find affordable bread in a country where fuel and medicine are already in critically short supply.
The rush came after the central bank on Wednesday said it could no longer afford to subsidize fuel in Lebanon.
The country, struggling with political turmoil since 2019, has also been hit by the worst global economic crisis in 150 years, according to the World Bank.
At least 78 percent of the more than six-million-strong population lives below the poverty line and businesses can barely stay afloat.

[Yuli Ban]

Major Lebanese hospital appeals for urgent help to save 55 patients from dying immediately due to fuel shortage

A top medical center and one of Lebanon’s oldest and most prestigious university hospitals warned on Saturday it may be forced to shut down in less than 48 hours due to fuel shortages, which would threaten the lives of its critically ill patients.

In a stark warning, the American University of Beirut Medical Center, said 55 patients dependent on respirators, including 15 children, and more than 100 people with renal failure who are on dialysis would be immediately threatened.

The somber statement underscored the severity of Lebanon’s economic crisis, which has paralyzed the country. Fuel shortages have prompted many owners of large private generators to turn off the machines.

Lebanon has for decades suffered electricity cuts, partly because of widespread corruption and mismanagement in the small Mediterranean nation of 6 million, including 1 million Syrian refugees.

The situation deteriorated dramatically this week after the central bank decided to end subsidies for fuel products — a decision that will likely lead to price hikes of almost all commodities in Lebanon, already in the throes of an unprecedented crisis, soaring poverty and hyperinflation.

[Yuli Ban]

Lebanon economic deterioration accelerates as fuel subsidy ends

Lebanon’s economic decline is set to gather pace after the central bank said this week it will end a fuel subsidy that has drained its reserves, a move that is likely to affect everything from food to clothes and basic goods.

“The price of fuel affects the price of all commodities in Lebanon,” Lebanese economic analyst Bassel Al-Khatib told Arab News. “Transportation and food will become significantly more expensive, and gasoline, diesel and cooking gas prices will at least triple if not more, paralyzing the country as all sectors will be affected.”

Lebanese economic crisis will rank as among the top three in the world in the past 150 years, according to the latest World Bank Lebanon Economic Monitor (LEM).

The country is already suffering from shortages of food, medicines, and other basic items, as well as power supply shortage due to lack in diesel supply. Stocks of liquefied petroleum gas, usually sold in canisters and used widely in homes and businesses, are also running out.

Lebanese lined up in long queues on Tuesday to stock up on cooking gas following warnings of imminent shortages, as the economic crisis eats away at supplies of basic imports.

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Iranian Foreign Minister to Hold Talks With Lebanese Leaders in Beirut
by Aya Iskandarani
October 6, 2021

https://www.thenationalnews.com/mena/le ... in-beirut/

Introduction:

(The National) Iran's foreign minister will meet top Lebanese officials on Thursday, a month after the formation of a new government tasked with leading the country out of economic crisis.

Hossein Amirabdollahian is scheduled to arrive in Beirut on Wednesday evening after an official trip to Moscow, a Hezbollah representative told The National.

Mr Amirabdollahian is expected to meet the country’s top politicians and the leadership of the Iran-backed group, in a visit that activists perceive as another sign of Tehran’s growing influence over Lebanon.

He will meet President Michel Aoun, Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri and Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Thursday morning.

Later in the day he will meet the Lebanese foreign minister, Abdullah Bou Habib.

[weatheriscool]

Lebanon's national electricity grid collapses
Source: Washington Post

BEIRUT — Lebanon's electricity network collapsed on Saturday after the two most important power stations ran out of fuel, leaving private generators as the only source of power.

The state-owned electricity company has been providing citizens with just a few hours of power a day for months, but the total collapse of the national grid will compound the misery of those who can’t afford to run generators and had relied on those few hours.

The outage marks the latest milestone in the unraveling of Lebanon, which is undergoing what the World Bank has described as one of the world’s three biggest financial collapses of the past 150 years.

The banking system was the first to implode in 2019, triggering a 90 percent slide in the value of the currency that has left the government unable to afford fuel, food and medicine imports while plunging millions of Lebanese into poverty.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/mi ... story.html

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Lebanon’s President Discusses Gulf crisis with Qatar’s Emir
November 29, 2021

https://www.courthousenews.com/lebanons ... tars-emir/

Introduction:

BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon's president Monday discussed his country's economic meltdown and an unprecedented diplomatic crisis between Beirut and Persian Gulf nations with the emir of Qatar. The emir promised to help the small country ease its problems.

The meeting between President Michel Aoun and Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani came shortly after the Lebanese leader arrived in the Qatari capital of Doha for the opening ceremony of an Arab soccer tournament and for talks on the crisis with Gulf nations.

Lebanon is sinking deeper into an economic crisis, the worst in its modern history. The country's financial meltdown, coupled with multiple other crises, has plunged more than three quarters of the nation’s population of 6 million, including a million Syrian refugees, into poverty.

The two leaders discussed mutual relations and regional and international affairs, Qatar's state news agency said.

The news outlet did not elaborate but Aoun’s office said the two leaders agreed that Arab countries should stand by Lebanon and “overcome any flaws that might face these relations.” It was an apparent reference to the crisis between Lebanon and Gulf states.

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Refugees in Shatila Camp Pushed to the Brink Amid Aid Crisis
by Federica Marsi and Kareem Chehayeb
December 6, 2021

https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2021 ... k-amid-aid

(Al Jazeera) Beirut, Lebanon – Walking confidently through the maze of narrow streets in Lebanon’s Shatila refugee camp, social worker Sanaa Kaiss smiled back as she was greeted by nods of the head and raised hands.

Kaiss, with the grassroots Association Najdeh, has worked in the Palestinian encampment in the southwest of Beirut for almost 25 years, but never lived through a crisis as worrying as the current one.

“In the morning, one can afford something and by the afternoon one no longer can because the price has gone up,” Kaiss explained.

As Lebanon plunged deeper into one of the world’s worst economic meltdowns, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) last week sounded the alarm about a major funding gap that could further cut access to basic services for about 200,000 Palestinian refugees.

The United Kingdom alone cut more than half its funding to UNRWA from 42.5 million pounds ($56.5m) in 2020 to 20.8 million ($27.6) this past year, while Gulf states that once contributed $200m in 2018 only provided $20m this year.