BEIRUT: Lebanon is expected to begin implementing in October a set of economic and financial measures agreed by its top leadership that will boost economic growth, President Michel Aoun said on Sunday, vowing that he would to tend to this himself.
He was referring to decisions taken at a top-level meeting earlier this month with the aim of reviving an economy that has been growing slowly for years and is struggling with one of the world’s heaviest public debt burdens.
After the Aug. 9 meeting, Prime Minister Saad Al-Hariri said agreed steps included finishing the 2020 budget on time, drawing up a plan to start $3.3 billion of projects approved by parliament, full implementation of a power sector reform plan, and laws to fight tax evasion and regulate public tenders.
“I will personally tend to the implementation path of the decisions of the financial and economic meeting” in cooperation with Prime Minister Saad Al-Hariri, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and other parties in government, Aoun said.
In written comments to Reuters, Aoun said this aimed “to guarantee political stability in cabinet and outside it and to secure the greatest amount of productivity,” including in the implementation of the 2019 budget and its reforms.
Aoun said he expected “the implementation path” to begin “with the start of October after the conclusion of the current preparations ... which will lead to lifting of the growth rates, reflecting positively on the economic and financial situations.”
After years of backsliding on economic reform, the impetus to act has grown due to economic stagnation and a slowdown in the flow of dollars into Lebanon’s banks from abroad. Lebanon has depended on such flows from its diaspora to finance the current account and the state budget deficits.
Foreign governments and donor institutions last year pledged $11 billion in financing to Lebanon for major infrastructure at the so-called Cedre conference in Paris, on condition that it carries out reforms.
Measures to reduce the budget deficit and reform the power sector, which bleeds public funds while inflicting daily power cuts on Lebanese, are seen as two vital tests of the government’s ability to reform.
The International Monetary Fund said in July this year’s deficit is likely to be well above a targeted 7.6% of national output.
It said the power reform plan and a budget to reduce the deficit were “very welcome first steps” and “further substantial fiscal adjustment and structural reforms” were needed.
Aoun said work was underway to approve the 2020 budget in the constitutional timeframe.
It would include “new, resolute reforms” agreed at the Aug. 9 meeting to reduce the power sector deficit, improve tax collection and fight customs and tax evasion.
Aoun also said frameworks must be put in place for implementing a plan drawn up by management consulting firm McKinsey for revamping the economy and this should coincide with the start of projects outlined at the Cedre conference.
Lebanon’s Aoun vows to tend to economic, financial reforms
Lebanon’s Aoun vows to tend to economic, financial reforms
- Aoun said this aimed “to guarantee political stability in cabinet and outside it and to secure the greatest amount of productivity”
- He expected “the implementation path” to begin “with the start of October"
Israel army says intercepted missile launched from Yemen
- The latest warnings from top Israeli officials came after a missile fired by the Houthis wounded 16 people in Israel’s main commercial city of Tel Aviv
JERUSALEM: The Israeli military on Monday said that it had intercepted a missile launched from Yemen before it crossed into Israeli territory.
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels have been firing missiles and drones at Israel and ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden in what they describe as solidarity with Palestinians since the war in the Gaza Strip broke out in October of last year.
In recent weeks, they have claimed to have fired several missiles at Israel, triggering retaliatory strikes from Israel targeting the rebels’ strategic assets and infrastructure.
“Following the sirens that sounded a short while ago in central Israel, a missile launched from Yemen was intercepted by the IAF (air force) prior to crossing into Israeli territory,” the Israeli military said in a statement.
Israel’s emergency service provider, Magen David Adom, reported that it had received no reports of any casualties so far.
On Saturday, Israel intercepted a similar missile launched from Yemen.
The Iran-backed Houthis have controlled large parts of Yemen since seizing Sanaa and ousting the government in 2014.
They have stepped up their attacks since November’s ceasefire between Israel and another Iran-backed group, Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Israel has also struck Yemen, including targeting Sanaa’s international airport on Thursday.
An Israeli statement said its targets included “military infrastructure” at the airport and power stations in Sanaa and Hodeida — a major entry point for humanitarian aid — as well as other facilities at several ports.
Houthis use these sites “to smuggle Iranian weapons into the region and for the entry of senior Iranian officials,” the statement said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned the Houthis, saying that Israeli strikes against them would “continue until the job is done.”
“We are determined to cut this branch of terrorism from the Iranian axis of evil,” he said in a video statement last week.
Defense Minister Israel Katz also recently declared: “We will hunt down all of the Houthis’ leaders — nobody will be able to evade the long arm of Israel.”
The latest warnings from top Israeli officials came after a missile fired by the Houthis wounded 16 people in Israel’s main commercial city of Tel Aviv.
That attack prompted strikes by the United States against the rebels in Sanaa.
American and British forces have repeatedly struck rebel targets in Yemen this year in response to Houthi attacks on shipping in Red Sea-area waters vital to global trade.
In July, a Houthi drone attack on Tel Aviv killed an Israeli civilian, prompting the first Israeli retaliation on Hodeida.
Ceasefire between Turkiye and US-backed SDF in northern Syria holding, Pentagon says
- Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants that it outlaws and who have fought the Turkish state for 40 years
WASHINGTON: The Pentagon said on Monday a ceasefire between Turkiye and the US-backed Kurdish Syrian forces around the northern Syrian city of Manbij was holding.
Washington brokered an initial ceasefire earlier this month after fighting that broke out as rebel groups advanced on Damascus and overthrew the rule of Bashar Assad. But on Dec. 19, a Turkish defense ministry official said there was no talk of a ceasefire deal between Ankara and the SDF.
“The ceasefire is holding in that northern part of Syria,” Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh told reporters.
The SDF is the main ally in a US coalition against Daesh militants in Syria. It is spearheaded by the YPG militia, a group that Ankara sees as an extension of Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants that it outlaws and who have fought the Turkish state for 40 years.
Turkiye regards the PKK, YPG and SDF as terrorist groups.
The US and Turkiye’s Western allies list the PKK as terrorist, but not the YPG and the SDF.
The United States has about 2,000 US troops in Syria that have been working with the SDF to fight Daesh militants and prevent a resurgence of the group, which in 2014 seized large swathes of Iraq and Syria but was later pushed back.
Moroccan activists tried over earthquake response criticism: lawyer
- The earthquake razed tens of thousands of homes in central Morocco, including in the High Atlas mountain range, forcing families to sleep out in the open through the winter
RABAT: Four activists advocating for victims of the 2023 earthquake in Morocco appeared in court on Monday to face charges including defamation, their lawyer told AFP.
Said Ait Mahdi, the head of Al Haouz Earthquake Victims Coordination, was brought before a Marrakech court “on allegations of defamation, insult and spreading false claims intended to harm individuals privacy,” said his lawyer Mohamed Nouini.
While Ait Mahdi has been in custody for a week, the other three defendants others, who face charges of “insulting public officials,” remain free said Nouini.
The lawyer said charges came after local officials filed complaints against the activists over social media posts they deemed offensive.
Ait Mahdi’s defense filed a request for his release pending trial on January 6, said Nouini.
Al Haouz province, south of Marrakech, was the worst affected area when a 6.8-magnitude earthquake hit in September 2023, killing nearly 3,000 people and injuring thousands more.
The earthquake razed tens of thousands of homes in central Morocco, including in the High Atlas mountain range, forcing families to sleep out in the open through the winter.
Ait Mahdi’s group has called for the acceleration of reconstruction efforts and greater support for the families affected by the earthquake.
As of early December, Moroccan authorities had issued some 57,000 reconstruction permits.
Over 35,000 houses have been completed or were underway, the government said in a statement on December 2.
Following the earthquake, the Moroccan authorities announced a five-year reconstruction plan with an estimated budget of $11.7 billion.
About $740 million of the funding was allocated to help affected families rebuild their homes, with the money to be distributed in instalments.
French ministers in Lebanon for talks month into Israel-Hezbollah truce
- Aoun has been tasked with deploying troops in the south of the country since the Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire came into effect
BEIRUT: France’s top diplomat and defense chief arrived on Monday in Lebanon, where a fragile truce since late November ended intense fighting between Israel and militant group Hezbollah.
Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot and Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu met with Lebanon’s army chief Joseph Aoun, and on Tuesday are due to visit UN peacekeepers near the Israeli border.
A Lebanese army statement on social media said that Aoun and the visiting ministers discussed “ways to strengthen cooperation relations between the armies of the two countries and to continue support for the army in light of current circumstances.”
Aoun, who is being touted as a possible candidate for Lebanon’s president, has been tasked with deploying troops in the south of the country since the Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire came into effect on November 27.
Lecornu said on X that he is also due to meet with a French general representing Paris “within the ceasefire monitoring mechanism.”
“Our armies are, and will remain, committed to the stability of Lebanon and the region,” he said.
The monitoring body brings together Lebanon, Israel, the United States, France and the United Nations’ UNIFIL peacekeeping mission. It is meant to support the implementation of the ceasefire and assess violations.
On Thursday, UNIFIL said it was “concerned” by “the continued destruction” carried out by the Israeli army in southern Lebanon, despite the truce.
Lecornu and Barrot are scheduled to meet on Tuesday with French soldiers deployed with UNIFIL in south Lebanon.
Israel must face consequences over Gaza campaign: UN experts
- “Israel continues to face no real consequences, largely due to protection offered by its allies”
- Israel has killed more than 45,500 people in Gaza, a majority of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry that the UN considers reliable
- The experts highlighted alleged crimes against humanity committed by Israel “including murder, torture, sexual violence, and repeated forced displacement amounting to forcible transfer”
GENEVA: United Nations rights experts on Monday said Israel must face the consequences of “inflicting maximum suffering” on Palestinian civilians in Gaza, alleging Israel was defying international law and being sheltered by its allies.
“International humanitarian law comprises a set of universal and binding rules to protect civilian objects and persons who are not, or are no longer, directly participating in hostilities and limits permissible means and methods of warfare,” the 11 experts said in a joint statement.
“Rather than abide by these rules, Israel has openly defied international law time and again, inflicting maximum suffering on civilians in the occupied Palestinian territory and beyond.
“Israel continues to face no real consequences, largely due to protection offered by its allies.”
The Gaza war was triggered by the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
That resulted in 1,208 deaths, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has killed more than 45,500 people in Gaza, a majority of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry that the UN considers reliable.
The experts highlighted alleged crimes against humanity committed by Israel “including murder, torture, sexual violence, and repeated forced displacement amounting to forcible transfer.”
They also noted alleged war crimes including “indiscriminate attacks on civilians and civilian objects... the use of starvation as a weapon of war” and “collective punishment.”
They said civilians were protected persons and did not constitute military objectives under international law.
“Acts aimed at their destruction in whole or in part are genocidal,” they added.
The experts called for urgent, independent and thorough investigations into alleged serious violations of international law.
“Israel’s continued impunity sends a dangerous message... Israel and its leaders must be held accountable,” they said.
The experts said they were particularly alarmed by Israel’s operations in the northern Gaza Strip.
Since October 6 this year, Israeli operations in Gaza have focused on the north, with officials saying their land and air offensive aims to prevent Hamas from regrouping.
“This siege, coupled with expanding evacuation orders, appears intended to permanently displace the local population as a precursor to Gaza’s annexation,” the experts said.
UN rights experts are independent figures mandated by the Human Rights Council. They do not therefore speak for the United Nations itself.
The 11 experts included the special rapporteurs on internally displaced persons; cultural rights; education; physical and mental health; arbitrary executions; the right to food; and protecting rights while countering terrorism.
Francesca Albanese, the special rapporteur on the rights situation in the occupied Palestinian territories, was also among the experts.
Israel has demanded her removal, branding her a “political activist” abusing her mandate “to hide her hatred for Israel.”
