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Persistence key to Lebanese desire for change

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by KHALED ABOU ZAHR -- arabnews -- French President Emmanuel Macron’s follow-up visit to Lebanon last week created a backlash from those who, like me, oppose Hezbollah and the Iranian influence in the region. The declarations made by French diplomatic teams giving legitimacy to this group were a mistake and, for some, a betrayal. The reason is simple: We see this group in its current form as a danger to the future of Lebanon; something that contributes to the erosion of the sovereignty of the country. Likewise, Iran plays a nefarious and expansionist role throughout the Middle East. Like me, many French people of Lebanese origin hope and dream of a free Lebanon that is close to France and prospers despite the situation in the Middle East. We hope that President Macron understands this.

Macron’s visit to Lebanon was followed by a visit to Iraq, and we owed it to him to listen to his message there. Indeed, during his visit to Iraq, Macron clearly opposed any interference in the country’s affairs, insisting on France’s support for the sovereignty of the Iraqi state. Iraq, with its new Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi, may have the capacity to rebalance its relations with its Iranian neighbor, even though the task will be difficult. French and American efforts seem to be aimed in this direction. The same principle applies in Lebanon, but perhaps no Lebanese person or political group is able to bring about this change today. On the other hand, we must also listen to Macron’s message about the Mediterranean because it is a message of prosperity and stability. Speaking of the principle of “Pax Mediterranea,” he clearly opposes Turkish imperialist action and its methods of intimidation, which all Mediterranean countries refuse. This is again a more complete vision to which Lebanon subscribes and which can be positive for this country. Some Sunni Lebanese groups seem to be calling on Turkey to intervene to oppose Hezbollah, but this would be a mistake that could plunge the country into even more conflict.

New migrant crisis at sea as young Lebanese flee to Cyprus

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by arabnews.com -- NAJIA HOUSSARI -- BEIRUT: Young people fleeing Lebanon in flimsy boats and heading for Cyprus are adding to the refugee crisis in the eastern Mediterranean. Four vessels appeared off the eastern and southern coast of Cyprus in the past two days carrying 123 Lebanese and Syrian migrants, island police said on Sunday. Some have been allowed into Cyprus, but at least 20 migrants are adrift off the southeastern tip in a boat witha faulty engine. Three women and nine children were earlier taken off the boat and transferred to a Cypriot hospital as a precaution. More than 30 people on a boat that police intercepted on Saturday about 20km off the southern coast have boarded another vessel that Cypriot authorities chartered to take them back to Lebanon. Cyprus and Lebanon have an agreement to stop migrant boats from reaching the island.

More than 50 migrants from Lebanon were taken to a reception center on Saturday after their boat reached a rocky beach along the island’s eastern coastline inside the UN controlled buffer zone separating the main part of Cyprus from the unrecognized breakaway Turkish Cypriot north. UN peacekeepers transferred the 35 men, five women and 11 children to Cypriot custody. A court on Sunday ordered that four men remain in custody on suspicion that they were the boat’s crew. Another 20 Syrian migrants were taken to a reception center after being picked up on Sunday morning near the buffer zone 15km west of the capital, Nicosia. Cypriot Interior Minister Nicos Nouris said there would be an urgent meeting on Monday to assess the situation. The island’s migrant reception center was reaching its limits amid concerns over adherence to health protocols to prevent the spread of COVID-19, he said. Lebanon hosts 1 million Syrian refugees and 250,000 Palestinian refugees. People smuggling has increased in the past few years, especially targeting young Lebanese disillusioned by the collapsing economy.

'Fateful Times': Lebanese Patriarch Says New Cabinet Must Spurn Old, Corrupt Way

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abouna.org : Cardinal Bechara Boutros al-Rahi to visit Jordan Monday, July 23

by Reuters -- BEIRUT — Lebanon's top Christian cleric said on Sunday a new government must deliver urgent economic and other reforms in the national interest, rather than returning to past corrupt ways that have plunged the Middle Eastern nation into an economic crisis. Patriarch Bechara Boutros Al-Rai, leader of the Maronite church, has an influential role as religious leader of the biggest Christian community in Lebanon, where political power is divided between its main Christian, Muslim and Druze sects. Prime Minister-designate Mustapha Adib, a Sunni Muslim, is in talks to swiftly form a cabinet by mid September, under pressure from French President Emmanuel Macron. Picking ministers in the past has taken months of haggling. Macron has led international efforts to fix the country of about six million people that has been crushed by debt and which is reeling from a huge Aug. 4 port blast that shattered Beirut, exacerbating Lebanon's deepest crisis since its 1975-1990 civil war.

For Lebanese, recovery too heavy to bear a month after blast

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BEIRUT (AP) -- By SARAH EL DEEB -- — A month after Beirut’s devastating explosion, Ghassan Toubaji still sits under a gaping hole in his ceiling — he can look up through the dangling plaster, wires and metal struts and the broken brick roof and see a bit of sky. The 74-year-old survived the Aug. 4 blast with bruises, but his fall from its impact worsened his heart and blood circulation diseases. Between that and Lebanon’s crumbled economy, he can’t go back to work. He used the last of the dollars his wife had been hoarding — a precious commodity as the local currency’s value evaporates — to fix the windows shattered by the explosion.

Teams of volunteers, a symbol of the help-each-other spirit that’s grown up from the failures of Lebanon’s corrupt political class, came by his apartment and assessed the damage. They put plastic on the windows and promised glass for free eventually. Four weeks later they hadn’t come back. With a sweet patient smile, he said he appreciated how well meaning the young volunteers were. But he couldn’t wait — with humidity reaching 80% some days and the summer sun directed all day into his apartment, he had to do something. “Our house is hot as hell,” he said, sitting in baggy shorts and a tank top as he watched the news in the room with the hole overhead.

Lebanese families are still struggling with rebuilding in the wake of the massive explosion centered at Beirut’s port. Many, already unable to make ends meet because of the country’s economic meltdown, now can’t bear costs of making homes livable. Frustration is high, with the state almost nowhere to be seen and promised international help slow in coming. With winter and the rainy season only weeks away, aid groups are concerned they may not have time or resources for the mammoth job of repairing and rebuilding. Around 200,000 housing units, approximately 40,000 buildings, were damaged in the blast, 3,000 of them so severely they are currently uninhabitable, according to U.N. estimates.

On Beaches Quieted By The Pandemic, Lebanon Sees Sea Turtle Boom

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by npr.org -- RUTH SHERLOCK -- Lebanon's capital, Beirut, remains devastated by the massive explosion at the city's port last month. The country is in the depths of an economic collapse, and the coronavirus is spreading. But as Lebanon reels from multiple tragedies, conservationists are pointing to one bright spot. They say a record number of endangered green sea turtles have come to nest on the country's shores. Loggerhead turtles have also come in large numbers. Seventy-two-year-old Mona Khalil has spent the last 20 years defending a small piece of shoreline, less than a mile long, from the factories and private beach clubs that now carpet almost all of Lebanon's coastline.

Al-Mansouri Beach is now one of Lebanon's most important breeding grounds for turtles. Every nesting season, Khalil and a team of volunteers count turtle's nests. They watch over them — protecting them from foxes and other animals and from humans — and then help the hatchlings on their journey back to the sea. The last time Khalil saw an increase in the number of green sea turtle nests was during another crisis in Lebanon — the war with Israel in 2006. Israeli gunboats floated just off shore of the beach. "The beach was deserted," she recalls. Even back then, she only counted nine green sea turtle nests. This year, she has counted 20. "It's amazing!" she says. "We haven't had this number in two decades. It's really something that is important for the world and not just for Lebanon." Khalil says this is also a good year for loggerhead turtles after years of decline. She has counted 16 nests.

World Bank cancels loan for controversial Lebanon dam

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by AFP -- The World Bank said Friday it was canceling a loan to fund a dam in Lebanon that environmentalists claimed could destroy a valley rich in biodiversity. The Bisri Dam was partially suspended in June after the Washington-based development lender said it raised concerns about the project's implementation, and given the government of Lebanon until September 4 to finalize key agreements related to operations and maintenance as well as the environment. In a statement, the World Bank said it had notified the government that it was withdrawing its financing "due to non-completion of the tasks that are preconditions to the commencement of construction." "The canceled portion of the loan is $244 million and the cancelation is effective immediately," the bank said.

Located in a valley 30 kilometres (20 miles) south of the capital, the dam aims to supply drinking water as well as irrigation for 1.6 million residents. Environmentalists and some farmers had disputed assurances from the government and the World Bank that the dam, to be built on a seismic fault line, does not increase the risk of earthquakes. Roland Nassour, an activist who has campaigned against the project, said he was delighted the loan had been cancelled. "Today one of the corruption deals in the country has collapsed," said Nassour, the coordinator of the Save Bisri initiative, adding that popular anger had made the project a "burden" for the global lender.

Cardinal Parolin in Lebanon: The Church, Pope Francis are with you after Beirut explosion

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Cardinal Pietro Parolin says Mass at the Shrine of Our Lady of Lebanon in Harissa, Lebanon Sept. 3, 2020. Credit: Fr. Charbel Obeid/CNA.

By Hannah Brockhaus Vatican City, (CNA).- Cardinal Pietro Parolin told Lebanese Catholics at a Mass in Beirut Thursday that Pope Francis is close to them, and praying for them, during their time of suffering. “It is with great joy that I find myself among you today, in the blessed land of Lebanon, to express to you the closeness and solidarity of the Holy Father and, through him, of the whole Church,” the Vatican Secretary of State said Sept. 3. Parolin visited Beirut Sept. 3-4 as the representative of Pope Francis, a month after the city experienced a devastating blast which killed nearly 200 people, injured thousands, and left thousands without a home. The pope has called for Sept. 4 to be a universal day of prayer and fasting for the country.

Cardinal Parolin celebrated Mass for around 1,500 Maronite Catholics at the Shrine of Our Lady of Lebanon, a major pilgrimage site in the hills of Harissa, north of Beirut, on the evening of Sept. 3. “Lebanon has suffered too much and the past year has been the scene of several tragedies affecting the Lebanese people: the acute economic, social and political crisis which continues to rock the country, the coronavirus pandemic which has worsened the situation and most recently, a month ago, the tragic explosion of the port of Beirut which ripped open the capital of Lebanon and caused terrible misery,” Parolin said in his homily. “But the Lebanese are not alone. We accompany them all spiritually, morally and materially.”

Parolin also met with Lebanon’s President Michel Aoun, a Catholic, on the morning of Sept. 4. Cardinal Parolin brought the president greetings from Pope Francis and said that the pope was praying for Lebanon, according to Archbishop Paul Sayah, who is responsible for external relations for the Maronite Catholic Patriarchate of Antioch. Parolin told President Aoun that Pope Francis “wants you to know that you are not alone in these difficult times that you are experiencing,” Sayah told CNA. The Secretary of State will conclude his visit with a meeting with Maronite bishops, including Cardinal Bechara Boutros Rai, the Maronite Catholic patriarch of Antioch, during lunch Sept. 4.