Lebanon

Lebanon’s Foreign Minister Nassif Hitti resigned on Monday over what he described as a lack of political will to reform as his nation wrestles with a financial crisis posing the biggest threat to stability since a 1975-1990 civil war.

Foreign donors have made it clear there will be no aid until Beirut enacts long-stalled reforms to tackle state waste and corruption, root causes of the collapse. Talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have been put on hold amid a row over the scale of financial losses.

02 Aug 2020; MEMO: Lebanon is prepared to defend itself against Israel’s attacks, which are in violation of the 2006 UN Security Council (UNSC) resolution, Lebanese President Michel Aoun said on Saturday.

In a televised address, the president said Israel’s attacks in southern Lebanon had once again flouted UNSC Resolution 1701, which calls for full cessation of hostilities and Israel’s withdrawal from southern Lebanon.

29 July 2020; MEMO: Lebanon’s population was plunged into darkness after private generator owners went on strike for one hour yesterday over the rising cost of diesel, the National reports.

Lebanon was already struggling with a crippling electricity scarcity problem which has seen increasingly long and frequent power cuts across the country.

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon needs a new prime minister to help it exit a deep economic and financial crisis, one of the country’s leading politicians said in an interview published on Wednesday.

Veteran Druze power broker Walid Jumblatt said replacing Hassan Diab “should seriously be considered because he has amnesia,” according to comments to local daily L’Orient-Le Jour that were confirmed by his office.

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab said on Tuesday Israel had violated his country’s sovereignty with a “dangerous military escalation” along the frontier on Monday and urged caution after a rise in border tensions.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country would do “everything necessary” to defend itself, a day after saying Israeli forces had thwarted an attempt by Hezbollah to infiltrate across the frontier. The Iranian-backed Shi’ite group denied this.

27 July 2020; MEMO: An Israeli reconnaissance drone has crashed inside Lebanese territory “during IDF operational activity”, the Israeli army has reported, adding, “there is no concern that any information was leaked”.

The drone crashed because of a technical failure while flying over the border region during a mission, according to a report by Israel’s Channel 12.

26 July 2020; MEMO: The Lebanese Army said Israel violated Lebanon’s airspace 29 times in the past 48 hours, Alaraby English reported.

The flagrant breaches were monitored by the United Nations’ Lebanon Peacekeeping Mission.

An army spokesperson said: “On Friday, Israeli planes violated Lebanese air space 20 times, and on Saturday 9 times.”

Israel has yet to respond to the accusation.

23 July 2020; MEMO: French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian is expected to urge Lebanon to enact badly-needed reforms to help get the country out of an acute financial crisis during a visit to Beirut which started on Thursday with a meeting with President Michel Aoun, Reuters reports.

BEIRUT (Reuters) - French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian visited Lebanon on Thursday to urge the government to enact badly-needed reforms to help steer the country out of an acute financial crisis.

The crisis, rooted in decades of state corruption and waste, marks the biggest threat to Lebanon’s stability since the 1975-90 civil war. A collapsing currency has led to soaring inflation and poverty and savers have lost free access to accounts in a paralysed banking system.

BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon’s hospitals, long considered among the best in the Middle East, are cracking under the country’s financial crisis, struggling to pay staff, keep equipment running or even stay open amid a surge in coronavirus cases.

Private hospitals, the engine of the health system, warn they may have to shut down. Chronically underfunded public hospitals, which have led the fight against the virus, fear they will be overrun.