Lebanon Watch Thread

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Yuli Ban
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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.
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Yuli Ban
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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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caltrek
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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.
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Yuli Ban
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'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.
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Yuli Ban
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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.
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Yuli Ban
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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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caltrek
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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.
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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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caltrek
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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.
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