Tag: Lebanon

The Story: Lebanon's parliament approved the legalization of the cultivation of cannabis. The consultancy McKinsey & Co. advised the government two years ago that the...

Iran’s financial crisis, exacerbated by American sanctions, appears to be undermining its support for militant groups and political allies who bolster Iranian influence in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and elsewhere. But Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, acknowledged the difficulties created by the American sanctions, criticizing them this month as “a form of war” and calling on the movement’s fund-raising arm “to provide the opportunity for jihad with money and also to help with this ongoing battle.” The Trump administration says the strains show that the sanctions are effective. Last year, President Trump pulled the United States out of the Iran nuclear deal and reimposed sanctions, hoping to undermine Iran’s ability to fund its network of alliances. In an interview in Beirut, a Hezbollah official denied that the group had not paid salaries and that the American sanctions had undermined its core mission. But he acknowledged that the group was reorganizing its finances to cut costs. During Mr. Pompeo’s visit to Beirut, his anti-Hezbollah stance faced staunch pushback from top Lebanese officials, including the president, the speaker of Parliament and the foreign minister. The United States is not, nor are its local partners. Iran’s deepest involvement is in Iraq, where financial pressures at home have pushed it to pursue stronger economic ties. Iran also maintains allies across Iraq’s political spectrum who promote Iranian interests, recently by challenging the United States’ military presence in the country. “When you try to push Iran out of the region by sanctioning it,” said Mr. Shabani of Al Monitor, “you are forcing it to get involved in the region even more.”

BEIRUT - Hezbollah’s bigger role in Lebanon’s new unity government points to a growing appetite to shape state affairs and builds on unprecedented military clout the group is wielding after helping turn the tide in Syria’s war. The most significant portfolio under Hezbollah control is the Health Ministry, the first time Hezbollah has controlled a ministry with a big budget, though the Shiite doctor it picked for the job is not a party member. More broadly, Hezbollah and its political allies from across Lebanon’s sectarian spectrum have emerged with more than half of the Cabinet’s 30 seats, reflecting a May parliamentary election that the group declared a victory. Salem Zahran, an analyst with links to Hezbollah leaders, said the government would go down in its history as the “first big shift and the first step along a long road” toward more influence in government. But Hariri’s Sunni dominance was shaken by the May election in which he lost more than one-third of his seats in parliament, many of them to Hezbollah-allied Sunnis. Hezbollah managed to secure a Cabinet seat for one of its Sunni allies. As Hezbollah’s clout has grown, Saudi Arabia has turned its focus away from Lebanon to other parts of the region, weakening Hezbollah’s opponents, who had benefited from its backing. Hariri’s ally, the staunchly anti-Hezbollah Christian Lebanese Forces (LF) party, was forced to cede significant ground during nine months of political wrangling over government portfolios, though it gained seats in parliament. This poses questions for the United States, whose Lebanon policy twins military aid to the Lebanese Army and support for Hariri with growing pressure on Hezbollah through sanctions. The United States has imposed new sanctions on Hezbollah as part of its strategy to counter Iran.

Lebanon is on track to form a new national unity government in the next few days, politicians said on Tuesday, raising hopes for an end to more than seven months of wrangling that has darkened the outlook for its struggling economy. Heavily indebted and suffering from a stagnant economy, Lebanon is in dire need of an administration that can set about long-stalled reforms to put public debt on a sustainable footing. Fitch Ratings on Tuesday changed Lebanon's outlook to negative from stable, citing a further deterioration in government deficits and debt dynamics and signs of rising pressures on Lebanon's financing model. His Future Movement said it was now possible "to wager" on the government being formed before the holidays, saying this was "a pressing matter" due to "economic and financial challenges." "We are concerned about the efforts of Hezbollah's political allies that provide it with top cover and a veneer of legitimacy." Compromise Efforts to form the government have faced a series of obstacles, the last of which surrounded Sunni representation, with Hezbollah demanding a cabinet seat for one of its Sunni allies to reflect their election gains. Hariri has resisted the demand. In exchange, they say they want Hariri to acknowledge their political standing as a group of Sunnis independent of his Future Movement by meeting them. The Hariri family has dominated Lebanese Sunni politics for decades. The Sunni minister is expected to be named among a group of ministers allotted to President Michel Aoun, a compromise on the part of his Free Patriotic Movement (FPM).

Watch LIVE at 6:15pm: President Trump will deliver remarks at the 35th anniversary of the suicide bombing of US Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon during the Lebanese Civil War. FOX News Channel (FNC) is a 24-hour all-encompassing news service dedicated…

A total of 38 candidates either hail from deeply rooted political families, or ones trying to carve a place for themselves in the patron-client system that has dominated Lebanese politics since the Ottoman Era. The prime minister himself, Sa’ad Hariri, is the son of former prime minister Rafik Hariri, and so is Faisal Karami (47), a ranking candidate in Tripoli, who is the son of ex-premier Omar Karami and the grandson of prime minister Abdul Hamid Karami. Running for a Maronite seat in Mount Lebanon are the Gemayel cousins, Sami (37) and Nadim (35), whose fathers, Bashir and Ameen, served as presidents of the republic back in the 1980s and whose grandfather Pierre commanded the Maronite Christian community since the 1930s. Lebanon is governed by a confessional, financial, and family network that, for a long time, has bequeathed power from one generation to the next." - Sarkis Abouzeid | Lebanese journalist Sami’s father ended his term in 1988 and went into long years in exile, returning in 2000 while Nadim’s father was killed during the civil war back in 1982. Speaking to Gulf News, he added: “Inheritance is part of the structure of power (in Lebanon), and for now, the social circumstances for bypassing it are not available. The 41th anniversary of his assassination coincided with the election, prompting thousands of Druze to raise posters of the three Junblatts, pledging allegiance to Taymour, just like their fathers and grandfathers had done with his father and grandfather. Former cabinet minister and MP Sulaiman Franjieh Jr, who heads the Marada Party, will also not be running for office this year, and has decided to back his son’s candidacy instead. - Noura Boustany | Journalist His father has had his eyes set on the presidency for years and worked closely with Hezbollah and Syria to achieve that but was abandoned back in 2016, when Hezbollah chose to make its other ally, Michel Aoun, president instead. The Washington Post’s award-winning former correspondent Noura Boustany, spoke to Gulf News saying: “One thing is clear, the old feudal-dynastic entrenched so-called elite of the body politic is being seriously challenged.

Top House Republicans said Friday that the chamber would take up bipartisan Iran sanctions legislation unrelated to an Obama-era nuclear deal after President Trump decertified the deal and called on Congress to amend a law providing oversight of the accord. In a statement, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R-Calif.), Armed Services Chairman Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) and Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) said they would work with Trump to address issues in the Iran deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), but emphasized the non-nuclear sanctions legislation. “We’ll take an important step to that end on the House floor by passing bills to increase sanctions unrelated to JCPOA that target Iran’s support for terrorism and its ballistic missile program when Congress returns in the coming weeks," the statement continued. Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) separately called the 2015 deal between the U.S., Iran and five other global powers “fatally flawed” and commended Trump for pushing changes to the accord. “I support President Trump’s decision to reevaluate this dangerous deal, and the House will work with his administration to counter Iran’s range of destabilizing activities." He also did not push Congress to reimpose sanctions lifted under the deal, but did ask that they amend the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act (IRANA) to address what he sees as issues in the accord. Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) and Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) Royce, McCarthy, Thornberry and Cheney said in Friday's statement that U.S.-Iran relations should not be defined only by the nuclear agreement.