Day: February 16, 2023

Caretaker Minister of Culture, Judge Mohammad Wissam Al-Mortada, on Thursday welcomed Russian Ambassador to Lebanon, Alexander Rudakov, with whom he discussed public affairs, in addition to political developments in Lebanon and the region, as well as bilateral relations, especially on the cultural level.

The Russian diplomat also handed Minister Al-Mortada an invitation from his counterpart to visit Russia.

Talks between the pair further touched on the best means to bolster cooperation between the two countries in terms of exchanging cultural missions.

Both men also confirmed March 11, 2023 a date to organize a cultural event to promote joint Russian-Lebanese works, including an art exhibition and debuting a movie “The Anger” at the National Library in Beirut.

Source: National News Agency – Lebanon

Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad received a message from the Iraqi Prime Minister, Mohammad Shia al-Sudani, conveyed by Faleh al-Fayadh, Head of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) in Iraq, in which he offered his sincere condolences to his Excellency, and to the Syrian people over the victims of the devastating earthquake.

In the message, al-Sudani also stressed that Iraq will continue to support the efforts of the Syrian government with all its capabilities in order to alleviate the repercussions of the earthquake on the Syrians.

Al-Fayyad pointed out that the Iraqi people, in all their sects, hastened, since the first days of the disaster, to mobilize their capabilities to provide all kinds of aid and relief to their brothers in the affected Syrian areas, and they continue to send this aid on daily basis.

President al-Assad thanked Iraq’s positions on the official and popular levels, and the speed of response it made towards Syria, considering that the blood and brotherhood ties between the Syrian and Iraqi peoples, and the common challenges they faced at different stages, made them always close to each other exchanging support and assistance as they are fully aware that what befalls one country affects the other one

Source: National News Agency – Lebanon

Protesters cut off Aramoun and Bchamoun roundabout and intersection with vehicles and trash containers, in protest against the deteriorating daily living conditions and the rise in the US dollar exchange rate.

The road closure has caused a heavy traffic jam in the area, with traffic being diverted to secondary routes.

Source: National News Agency – Lebanon

Caretaker Prime Minister, Najib Mikati, on Thursday held a series of urgent meetings at the Grand Serail to discuss the monetary situation and the required solutions.

In this context, Premier Mikati presided over a meeting attended by Caretaker Minister of Finance, Dr. Youssef Al-Khalil, Caretaker Minister of Economy and Trade, Amin Salam, Central Bank Governor (BDL), Riad Salameh, a delegation from the Bank’s Central Council, Director General of the Ministry of Finance, George Maarawi, and the Director General of the Ministry of Economy and Trade, Mohammed Abou Haidar.

The meeting discussed the solutions required to address the monetary situation. They agreed to keep the meetings open.

On the other hand, Caretaker Premier Mikati met with Caretaker Finance Minister, Dr. Youssef Al-Khalil.

Mikati later received respectively the Director General of the State Employees Cooperative Yahya Khamis, and the Head of the Civil Service Council, Nisreen Machmouchi.

Source: National News Agency – Lebanon

Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah directed several threats to the United States on Thursday, vowing that Washington’s scheme in Lebanon will be foiled and that Hezbollah’s retaliation would be ‘unimaginable’.

In a memorial ceremony of the Lebanese resistance movement’s martyred commanders, Sheikh Ragheb Harb, Sayyed Abbas Al-Moussawi and Hajj Imad Mughniyeh, Sayyed Nasrallah stressed that whoever “pushes Lebanon towards chaos and collapse has to expect chaos in the entire region and especially in the Zionist entity.”

His eminence underlined importance of urgent dealing with the dramatic low of Lebanese Lira against US Dollar, as he called to work to find solutions to the harsh economic crisis in Lebanon.

As he saluted the resistance of Palestinian people against the Israeli occupation, Sayyed Nasrallah pointed to ‘unprecedented state’ in the Zionist entity, attributed to Israeli concerns over a potential collapse of the occupation regime before completing 80 years on its establishment.

The Hezbollah S.G., meanwhile, extended condolences, anew, to Syria and Turkey over the tragedy of the devastating earthquake which killed tens of thousands of people, injured tens of thousands others and left many more homeless, earlier this month.

Sayyed Nasrallah renewed allegiance to the martyred commanders, vowing to follow their suit in defying challenges in a bid to defend the country and the nation against the enemies’ schemes.

“We hold memorial ceremonies of our martyred commanders in a bid to draw lessons and to confront the current challenges we are witnessing,” Sayyed Nasrallah addressed the resistance crowds who attended the memorial services in several regions across Lebanon: Beirut’s Dahiyeh, Bekaa’s Nabi Sheet and southern town of Teir Dibba.

“Our martyred commanders stuck to the resistance path despite all hardships, abandonment and betrayal.”

As he congratulated the Iranian nation on the 44th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution, he slammed Western media over its biased coverage of the million-man marches which swept the Islamic Republic on the occasion.

“Western media turned blind eye to the million-man marches across Iran on the anniversary of the Islamic Revolution, as it focused on riots and instigated against the establishment in the Islamic Republic.”

Sayyed Nasrallah also addressed those who bet on the collapse of Iran as saying: “You will lose.

Source: National News Agency – Lebanon

House Speaker, Nabih Berri, on Thursday received at the second presidency in Ain al-Tineh, Iranian Ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, with whom he discussed the latest developments, the current general situation, and the bilateral relations between the two countries.

Speaker Berri also received former Secretary General of the Arab League, Amr Moussa, with whom he discussed the latest developments in Lebanon and the region.

Berri later met with former Minister Ghazi Aridi, over the current general situation and political developments

Source: National News Agency – Lebanon

Lebanese Army Commander, General Joseph Aoun, on Thursday received at his Yarzeh office, the United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon, Joanna Wronecka.

Discussions reportedly touched on the current general situation.

Source: National News Agency – Lebanon

Irrigation and Water Resources Minister Hany Sowialam said that his ministry implements several major projects to upgrade and maintain irrigation facilities nationwide.

The minister on Thursday 16/2/2023 received a report from the head of barrages and reservoirs department Ehab El Gohary to review the implementation progress of new Dairut barrages project.

The new Dairut barrages project is one of the huge projects carried out by the Irrigation Ministry to upgrade and maintain irrigation facilities nationwide and aims to improve irrigation systems to serve 1.6 million feddans in the Upper Egyptian governorates of Assuit, Menya, Beni Suef, Fayyoum and Giza, the minister said.

The project also includes the establishment of seven barrages with a system to manage and follow up water distribution in 45 areas covered by the project, the minister added.

Source: State Information Service Egypt

The Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR) shares its grief and sorrow with the families of all the victims of the recent earthquake that occurred in Syria and Turkey, and wishes the injured a speedy recovery and peace for families of the missing ones. As the death toll and number of missing and injured continues to mount, it is clear that the scope of the tragedy is not yet fully known, with thousands still buried in the rubble, and millions of people affected.

It is with great distress that we learned that several colleagues and friends have lost family members and loved ones in the earthquake, which could be felt as far away as Lebanon, and has already left almost 40,000 dead in Turkey and Syria.

At the same time, GCHR believes that the reaction of the international community has been disappointing after it failed miserably to provide the required response in recovery and humanitarian assistance to the affected nations, including some Syrian areas that were left totally alone to deal with such a disaster as no one has reached out to them yet. In northern Syria in particular, it took too long for assistance to arrive to help rescue people particularly in the critical first 24 hours.

GCHR’s management and team are still trying to grasp what happened and the magnitude of such a tragedy. We are also aware of the repercussion of this catastrophe on human rights and in particular vulnerable groups. Therefore, GCHR along with partners are gathering support to help alleviate the suffering of the human rights defenders and their communities in the aftermath of the earthquake. If you are a human rights defender at risk, there are some avenues of assistance for emergency support. GCHR has put a list online of Assistance Funds, including some specialised resources for WHRDs and CSOs, in English and Arabic:

We call on all donors and governments to provide rapid assistance and move quickly to ease the suffering of those affected, and to ensure the free flow of information to help survivors.

All levels of governments and other parties must put aside politics and conflict to hasten humanitarian relief. The United Nations and aid agencies must prioritise gaining access to all areas.

Source: Gulf Center of Human Rights

Today, Spain’s parliament passed a comprehensive law to expand protections and entrench rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) people.

The statute has become known colloquially as the “Trans Law” because provisions that allow for gender recognition based on self-identification through a simple administrative process have provoked heated public debate.

The passage of the law represents a significant milestone for the LGBTI movement, and particularly for the long fight for gender recognition in Spain. Previously, the process for trans people to change their gender marker on identification documents required a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria, and a two-year period of medical treatment to align the applicant’s physical characteristics to the gender marker they sought. The new law does away with these requirements and is based on a trans person’s self-identification.

The law improves protections for LGBTI people more broadly by expanding access to assisted reproductive techniques; strengthening sexuality education; banning medically unnecessary, “normalizing” surgeries for intersex children before they can consent; enabling parental recognition for unmarried same-sex couples; and introducing measures to combat discrimination against LGBTI people in various sectors, including in healthcare, employment, and housing.

These improvements have at times been drowned out in a heated public debate in Spain, that mainly focused on the gender recognition reforms, leading to increased political conflict, including within the ruling coalition. Some lawmakers balked at the provisions that permit children, from age 12, to obtain legal gender recognition under certain conditions.

While public debate is important, European and international law and standards are clear: transgender people should not be subjected to abusive and disproportionate requirements for legal recognition of gender identity. The new Spanish law upholds these human rights standards.

Human Rights Watch has documented in countries like Bangladesh, El Salvador, Japan, Lebanon, Mexico, and Thailand how the lack of gender recognition can infringe on a host of human rights, such as the rights to employment, education, health, and security. The World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), an interdisciplinary professional association with more than 700 members worldwide, found that barriers to gender recognition for transgender people, including diagnostic requirements, “may harm physical and mental health.”

A growing number of countries around the world have removed burdensome requirements to legal gender recognition, including medical or psychological evaluation, sterilization, and divorce. Spain now joins countries like Argentina, Belgium, Colombia, Denmark, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, Norway, Portugal, and Uruguay that have also have gender recognition procedures that foreground individual autonomy.

Source: Human Rights Watch

BEIRUT — Several dozen Lebanese protesters attacked banks in a Beirut neighborhood on Thursday, while blocking roads protesting against informal restrictions on cash withdrawals in place for years and rapidly deteriorating economic conditions.

At least six banks had been targeted as the Lebanese pound hit a new record low on Thursday, a spokesperson for Depositors Outcry, a lobby representing depositors with money stuck in the country’s banking sector, said.

A bank in the Badaro neighborhood smouldered as firefighters sprayed water, while riot police stood nearby with shields.

Since 2019, Lebanese banks have imposed restrictions on withdrawals in U.S. dollars and Lebanese pounds that were never formalized by law, leading depositors to seek access to their funds through lawsuits and often by force.

The Lebanese pound has lost more than 98% of its value since the country’s financial sector imploded in 2019. It was changing hands at around 80,000 pounds per greenback on Thursday, dropping from 70,000 pounds just two days earlier.

The country’s central bank, which has struggled to manage the crisis, did not respond to a request for comment on why the pound had crashed and what it was doing to address the issue.

The office of Lebanon’s prime minister said work was ongoing to remedy financial conditions in the country.

Lebanon made a first step towards securing an International Monetary Fund bailout in April 2022 but, nearly a year later, has failed to carry out the reforms needed to finalize it.

Source: Voice of America