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Three reasons the US must help Lebanon avoid total collapse

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Three reasons the US must help Lebanon avoid total collapse

BY EDWARD GABRIEL, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR -- TheHIll — In a last-ditch effort to wake up Lebanon’s political leadership, Undersecretary of State David Hale recently visited Lebanon to underscore the urgent need for a reform-minded government before the country becomes a fully failed state. Upon his departure, he said, “(The Lebanese are) suffering because (their) leaders have failed to meet their responsibility to put the country’s interests first and to address the mounting socio-economic problems … but it’s not too late.” Unfortunately, Hale’s plea appears to have fallen on deaf ears. Joblessness, lack of access to basic health care, and inability to feed their families are factors that continue to erode the lives of hundreds of thousands of Lebanese citizens. Lebanon’s leaders apparently cannot be convinced to quit their sectarian and self-serving bickering over an economic rescue plan or a new government. Although Hale said it’s not too late to form a government capable of addressing the citizenry’s needs, it is becoming increasingly evident that the country could face financial collapse within weeks. Now is the time for the Biden administration to switch gears to protect U.S. interests in Lebanon. Three immediate actions would be wise:

First, it is imperative that the U.S., along with the French and others, outline a plan that assures the Lebanese people that the world has not forgotten them and is prepared to assist them, the International Monetary Fund, and other partners with a recovery program — once an effective government is put in place.

Farmers and traders despair as Saudi Arabia bans Lebanese produce

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A vendor arranges fresh produce on display for sale at a souk in Sidon, Lebanon. Bloomberg

by thenationalnews.com -- Gareth Browne -- Lebanon’s farmers are rushing to find new buyers for their produce 48 hours after a Saudi ban on fruit and vegetable imports from the country sent prices dropping. At the fruit and vegetable market in Beirut’s Madina Al Riyadiye, the wholesale price of lemons has dropped by 40 per cent in two days, while the price of bananas is down more than 50 per cent. A ban on all fruit and vegetables transiting or originating from Lebanon was introduced by Riyadh on Sunday morning, after millions of amphetamine pills were discovered hidden in a shipment of pomegranates. Saudi Arabia says it has seized more than 600 million pills coming from the country over the past six years and claims Lebanon is being to flood the region with narcotics. Lebanon’s Syndicate of Fruit and Vegetable producers criticised the suggestion that a Lebanese farmer was responsible for the pomegranate shipment that put the industry at risk. Lebanon orders crackdown on smuggling after Saudi Arabia bans produce The ban has left crises-hit Lebanon with yet another problem to deal with: a vast excess of fruit and vegetables.

Exports to the Gulf account for 55 per cent of trade in this sector, the Lebanese farmers’ association says. As the surplus of produce causes domestic prices to collapse, traders are desperately trying to find other buyers for their fruit with sell-by dates approaching. “It’s not only Saudi Arabia. It’s about all the Gulf markets,” says Mahmoud Al Sanousi, floor manager at Al Fadl trading company’s banana-processing plant in Adloun. “We have refrigerated products that transit through Saudi Arabia to Kuwait and Qatar. "We have trucks currently on the road to Dubai and Kuwait. Now they have to go back or dispose of the products. “If this is not solved soon, we are going to be throwing a lot of fruit out.”

Lebanese officials say drug-stuffed pomegranate shipment originated in Syria

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Lebanese officials say drug-stuffed pomegranate shipment originated in Syria

by arabnews.com -- NAJIA HOUSSARI -- BEIRUT: A pomegranate shipment hiding millions of Captagon pills entered Lebanon in stages through the Masnaa border crossing with Syria, a Lebanese customs official has claimed in an interview with Arab News where he tried to lessen his country’s responsibility for the drug-stuffed fruit shipment which has recently caused Saudi Arabia to ban all fruit and vegetables imports from Lebanon. The narcotic-stuffed shipment was seized in Dammam last Friday. On Monday President Michel Aoun said Lebanon was keen not to endanger the safety of any country, while caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab said neither Lebanon nor its people would accept any harm caused to the Saudis. “We are with the Kingdom in combating smuggling networks and pursuing those involved,” Diab said.

Preventing smuggling from Lebanon’s borders was the focus of a meeting chaired by Aoun, with ministers and officials from security and customs services taking part. Saudi Arabia was urged to “reconsider” its ban, which came into effect on Sunday, and Interior Minister Mohammed Fahmi was assigned to communicate and coordinate with the Kingdom’s authorities to “follow up the procedures to discover the perpetrators and prevent the recurrence of such odious practices.” But a customs source revealed the scale of the challenge, as well sharing insights into the smuggling process. “It is a constant war with smugglers and it needs advanced equipment while we work manually,” the customs source told Arab News. “The quantity of pomegranates that contained Captagon tablets entered Lebanon in stages on more than one truck at the end of January through the Masnaa border crossing with Syria. Documents of the consignments indicated that the pomegranates were imported for internal Lebanese consumption and bear a certificate that they are of Syrian origin and not intended for transit.”

RAHI: TO KEEP JUDICIARY AWAY FROM POLITICAL POLARIZATIONS

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Patriarch Al-Rahi Under Attack For Speaking About Neutrality

NNA - Maronite Patriarch, Cardinal Beshara Boutros Rahi, called on Lebanese officials to keep the judicial body away from the vicious circle of polarizations and political polemic. "We insist on restoring rights, especially bank deposits. But what happened recently was contrary to judicial principles and legal rules, as it affected the prestige and respect of the judicial authority, which is the only one that guarantees the rights and freedoms of citizens in their disputes among themselves and in their differences with the authority and the state. We wonder with great concern about the event and its circumstances," the Patriarch said in his sermon, commenting on the recent events that took place in the judiciary. "If our officials heard the voice of God in their conscience, and His voice through the suffering of the Lebanese citizens, 50% of whom became below the poverty level, while the middle class was above 80% of the people and constituted the pillar of its stability, and His voice through the collapse of the state with its institutions, economy, finances, and the livelihood of its people, they would have been formed the government, and began quickly with reforms and restoration of the port and reconstruction of Beirut, and stopped waste, and closed open and hidden smuggling crossings, and controlled the revenues of ports and the airport, and carried out basic and urgent reforms," Rahi went on.

The Patriarch also stressed the need to issue the ration card to needy families as a compensation for reconsidering the subsidy policy.

President Michel Sleiman: معركة جبيل عام 1293

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هذه الاخبار وردت في تاريخ الازمنة للدويهي وفي المعجم المفصل لتاريخ الموارنة المؤصل للمطران يوسف الدبس وفي كتاب حروب المقدمين

معركة جبيل عام 1293 - معركة مثلث الفيدار-جبيل-المدفون , بين موارنة لبنان و جيش المماليك، حين جمع السلطان المملوكي حوالى 100 ألف جندي عربي وقرر مهاجمة بلاد جبيل لقمع أي وجود حرّ في جبل لبنان (الذي لم تتمكن جيوش العرب من دخوله طوال سبعة قرون بالرغم من سقوط كل الشرق بيدهم) وهاجم من محورين: محور من بيروت باتجاه جبيل ( 60 ألف جندي) ومحور طرابلس باتجاه المدفون (40 ألف جندي). اما المقاومة المسيحية يقودها 30 مقدما من المردة فقسمت جيشها (30 الفا) الى قوتين: قوة تتمركز في منطقة المدفون والقوة الثانية تتمركز في منطقة برج الفيدار وعلى التلال التي تشرف على مدينة جبيل (بلاط، حبوب…).

هاجم المماليك من المحور الجنوبي ( بيروت – جبيل بحوالى 60 ألف جندي) فرصدتهم القوة المتمركزة على تلال جبيل، ولم تعترضهم، تركتهم يدخلون المدينة، بعد ان طلب قادة المقاومة المسيحية من السكان مغادرة المدينة بالمراكب ويبحروا قليلاً بمحاذاة الشاطئ الجبيلي. وبعد ان دخل الجيش المملوكي الى مدينة جبيل رأى السكان في مراكبهم في البحر فظنّ أن السكان هربوا، فبدأوا ينهبون ويأكلون ويشربون احتفالاً بالنصر، فتضعضع وضعهم التنظيمي. وعند المساء هاجمتهم القوات المسيحية المتمركزة على تلال جبيل وتمكنّت من قتل قسم كبير منهم وقتلت قائد الجيش المملوكي، وعندما حاول من تبقى من الجيش المملوكي الهروب جنوباً، كانت قوة من المردة الجراجمة بانتظارهم في منطقة الفيدار وقضت عليهم.

Biden officially recognizes the massacre of Armenians in World War I as a genocide

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Totally unfair': Biden denounces Russia over Navalny - POLITICO

by AP -- President Biden on Saturday became the first U.S. president to formally recognize the systematic deportation and massacre of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire as a genocide -- something the successive White Houses have avoided out of concern for damaging relations with Turkey. "Each year on this day, we remember the lives of all those who died in the Ottoman-era Armenian genocide and recommit ourselves to preventing such an atrocity from ever again occurring," Biden said in a statement marking Armenian Remembrance Day. An estimated 2 million Armenians were deported and 1.5 million killed between 1915 and 1925 in what has become known as Meds Yeghern. "Beginning on April 24, 1915, with the arrest of Armenian intellectuals and community leaders in Constantinople by Ottoman authorities, one and a half million Armenians were deported, massacred, or marched to their deaths in a campaign of extermination," Biden said. "We honor the victims of the Meds Yeghern so that the horrors of what happened are never lost to history. And we remember so that we remain ever-vigilant against the corrosive influence of hate in all its forms."

Lebanese farmers say Saudi drugs haul originated in Syria

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A Saudi Customs officer opens imported pomegranates after an attempt to smuggle millions of Captagon pills hidden inside a shipment of the fruit from Lebanon through Jeddah Islamic Port. Saudi Press Agency via AP

by thenationalnews.com -- Gareth Browne -- A shipment of more than 5.3 million amphetamine pills hidden inside pomegranates seized by Saudi Arabia originated in Syria, not Lebanon, representatives of the Lebanese agriculture industry said. The claim came after the drug seizure at Jeddah Islamic Port prompted Riyadh to ban imports of fruit and vegetables originating from or transiting through Lebanon with effect from Sunday. Saudi Arabia is one of the biggest markets for Lebanese fruit and vegetables. Caretaker Interior Minister Mohammed Fahmi said Lebanon was willing to increase co-operation with Saudi Arabia to combat such smuggling. The government “has been exerting tremendous efforts combating drug smuggling”, the minister said.

Ibrahim Tarshishi, the head of the Bekaa Farmers’ Association, denied the pomegranate shipment had come from Lebanon, saying the country had become an importer of pomegranates. “Lebanese agricultural production is innocent of the accusation of exporting drugs to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” a statement issued by Mr Tarshishi said. “We do not have pomegranates to export; rather we import them." The Saudi seizure of Captagon pills, a type of amphetamine, was followed by the discovery of more than four tonnes of processed cannabis in the Greek port of Piraeus. Greek authorities estimated the shipment, originating from Lebanon and destined for Slovakia, to be worth about €33 million ($39.9m). The production of Captagon in Syria has boomed since the country’s civil war erupted a decade ago, with neighbouring Lebanon serving as the main route for the drug to enter the global market. The Lebanese party and militant group Hezbollah is an ally of the Syrian regime.