Lebanese trade unions launch general strike to demand new govt

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By Najia Houssari - arabnews.com -- BEIRUT: Public prosecutors in Lebanon have been instructed to crack down on the monopoly on foodstuffs and oil derivatives as political, security and diplomatic concerns grow over explosive daily protests. The spontaneous protests are also demanding access to medicine, fuel, hospitalization and electricity. The Crisis Observatory at the American University of Beirut warned that “the risk of Lebanon falling into the rank of failed states has become a reality after it fell 36 places over five years.” Its rank in 2021 was among the 34 most failed states out of 179 states. The Public Prosecutor at the Court of Cassation, Judge Ghassan Oueidat, on Monday called on public prosecutors in Lebanon to “strictly pursue the monopoly of foodstuffs and oil derivatives, after there has been a lot of refraining from selling these subsidized materials, or selling them at prices that exceed the set price.”

Judge Oueidat said that what is happening “are crimes stipulated by law and must be prosecuted, and shops, warehouses and stations belonging to the suspects must be sealed with red wax.” The judicial procedure came as trade unions and civil bodies prepare for a general strike that begins on Thursday to push for the formation of a government. On Monday, unions of food industries, bakeries, transport workers and taxi drivers announced that they would respond to Thursday’s strike. Bechara Al-Asmar, head of the General Labor Union, told Arab News: “Our move will be escalatory. I don’t know if the strike will last more than a day; we will see what happens Thursday.”

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Lebanese film The Sea Ahead to premiere at the Cannes Film Festival

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by digitalstudiome.com -- The Director’s Fortnight running from 7th-17th July 2021 will showcase the director’s debut film titled The Sea Ahead at the 74th Cannes Film Festival. Ely was previously awarded the Palm D’Or award for Best Short Film at the 68th Cannes Film Festival for his film Waves’98. When in production, The Sea Ahead has won many awards including Best Film in Post-Production at the Final Cut in Venice workshop, CineGouna Platform’s award for Best Project in Development Phase, Financial Award from Drosos Foundation and several grants from Arab Funds for Arts and Culture, Doha Film Institute, Red Sea Fund among others. The story of the film revolves abound Jana, a young woman who suddenly returns to Beirut and finds herself reconnecting with the familiar yet strange life she had once left behind.

Starring Manal Issa, Yara Abou Haidar, Rabih El Zaher and Roger Azar, the film has been produced by Andolfi (Arnaud Dommerc) in association with Beachside and co-produced by Aboout Productions; Wrong Men and Beaver and Beaver. Ely Dagher is an artist and filmmaker who has been working across mediums and his work focusses on the layering of multiple narratives in film. His work is often inspired by his upbringing in Lebanon and its current state involving cultures, histories and fiction.

President Michel Sleiman: طالما لم نتوصل الى تشخيص واحد ومنطقي لاسباب الانهيار فلن يمكننا معالجة الوضع

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احد مبارك
طالما لم نتوصل الى تشخيص واحد ومنطقي لاسباب الانهيار فلن يمكننا معالجة الوضع  الاقتصادي اطلاقاً ولو شكلت اعظم الحكومات ومن افضل الاختصاصيين او السياسيين المستقلين وغير المستقلين

Lebanon pharmacists’ strike causes panic as hospitals hit by medical supply shortage

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By Najia Houssari -- arabnews.com -- BEIRUT: Pharmacies in Lebanon shut their doors on Friday to protest severe supply shortages amid the country’s worst economic and financial crisis for decades. The two-day strike, called over a lack of medicine, gasoline and even infant formula, is the latest sign of Lebanon’s meltdown. Pharmacists, doctors, dentists, nurses and lab scientists took to the streets on Friday to voice their suffering, with people storming the Health Ministry’s interior courtyard and calling for rationalizing subsidies on medicine and a solution to the crisis in the healthcare sector. They urged the World Health Organization not to deal with authorities but instead deal with the Lebanese army and the Lebanese Red Cross. The strike has caused panic in hospitals, which are suffering from medical supply shortages. Fights have been reported between patients and medical staff, with some incidents filmed and posted on social media.

People have even been seen destroying the exterior of emergency departments, while doctors have clashed with patients who refused to postpone their surgeries due to the shortages. Dr. Hadi Mrad blasted the “ongoing corruption of the ruling class” that had violated people’s rights and remained “unpunished, supported and protected” by a corrupt system. “We have never seen something similar,” he told Arab News. “We cannot help our patients. We prescribe them medicine, but the pharmacies are empty. We ask them to run a blood test, but laboratories are not receiving patients due to the shortages in subsidized supplies. We want to admit them, but hospitals have run out of IVs. We get that there is no fuel or flour. But what did patients do to deserve this? What is currently happening is intentional and the authority is determined to kill its citizens.”

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Lebanon’s Sunni leaders renew support for Hariri

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By NAJIA HOUSSARI -- arabnews.com -- BEIRUT: The Supreme Islamic Sharia Council, which represents the Sunni community and its leaders in Lebanon, has renewed its support for Saad Hariri, the prime minister-designate, amid an escalating dispute over the failure to form a government in the country. After a lengthy meeting on Saturday, in which Hariri participated, the council warned that “any quest for new definitions regarding the constitution or the Taif Agreement is not acceptable under any of the arguments.” It was earlier reported that Hariri might announce during the meeting that he was stepping down from the task of establishing a new government entrusted to him by parliament last October. The French initiative and the mediation of Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri so far have failed to help form a government because of an escalating dispute between Hariri and President Michel Aoun, together with his political team represented by his son-in-law Gebran Bassil, head of the Free Patriotic Movement.

The meeting, which was held in Dar Al-Fatwa and attended by former prime ministers, said that the blame for delaying the formation of the government lies with those “who are trying to invent ways and methods that nullify the content of the National Accord Document, which enjoys the consensus of Lebanese leaders who are keen on Lebanon’s independence, unity, sovereignty and pan-Arabism.” During the session, chaired by the grand mufti, Sheikh Abdul Latif Derian, Hariri discussed the obstacles to forming the government and steps he has taken to overcome them. Those present at the meeting expressed their fear that “the suffocating crisis facing Lebanon will deteriorate into an endless abyss amid the indifference and random confusion that characterizes the behavior and actions of leaders who control citizens.”

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Lebanese military forces prepare for possible chaos

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by arabnews.com -- Najia Houssari -- BEIRUT: France is organizing a virtual conference next Thursday “to mobilize support from the international community for the Lebanese army,” following an official visit to France from Lebanese Army Commander Gen. Joseph Aoun at the end of May. Aoun met with French President Emmanuel Macron and discussed “providing urgent food and medical aid to the security forces in the hope of maintaining law and order.” The US and Lebanon also held a conference at the end of May, with Washington renewing its commitment to the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) by increasing its its military aid by $15 million, reaching a total of $120 million in the fiscal year 2021. “We have a permanent military aid program with the US, but we do not need weapons right now. We need in-kind aid for the army,” a military source stressed. These developments take place as external warnings continue about the possibility of chaos prevailing in Lebanon, as the economic and social situation hits rock bottom.

Foreign observers fear that security forces may not be able to prevent unrest that may prove more violent than the protests of 2019 and 2020. Political bickering continues, and the caretaker government has refrained from performing any role that its head, Hassan Diab, considers to be in violation of the constitution. A military source told Arab News the political conflicts “affected the morale of the army and other security forces.” However, the source stressed theys had been successful in dealing with protest movements so far. The source added: “It is true that the army is suffering and understands what the people are feeling, but its priority is to protect civil peace and stability; harming civil peace is crossing a red line. “The military institution has no new plan to prevent chaos if it occurs, so it will exercise the role assigned to it.”

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