Top officials will meet today to discuss the future of subsidies as fuel shortages persist. (Credit: Mohammad Yassine)
Three men were killed yesterday in the north of the country in two separate disputes over the purchase of gasoline. Hussein Jaber and Alaa Ahmad were found dead in the Bab al-Tabbaneh neighborhood of Tripoli in the early hours of Monday morning after a quarrel over gasoline trading led to gunfire and the throwing of a grenade, our sister publication L’Orient-Le Jour’s correspondent in the north reported. Several hours later, another man, named by the state-run National News Agency as Mohammad Obeid, died of injuries sustained when a brawl — reportedly involving sticks, knives and eventually guns — broke out over refueling at a gas station in Bakhoun in the Minyeh-Dinnieh district. The deaths come amid severe gasoline rationing resulting from monthslong countrywide fuel shortages. George Brax, a gas station owners’ syndicate member, yesterday told L’Orient Today that shipments of both gasoline and diesel are “expected soon,” but how long the supply will take to reach the market “depends on how fast Banque du Liban [which subsidizes fuel imports] pays importers.”
The syndicate of private hospital owners yesterday said it had secured up to two days’ worth of diesel for 10 hospitals that had been in immediate danger of being forced to shut off their generators. The syndicate had on Sunday warned that several hospitals, including university hospitals, were “under threat of having their generators shut down within a few hours due to lack of diesel,” adding that this would put patients’ lives at risk. Sleiman Haroun, head of the syndicate, told L’Orient Today that the hospital owners had contacted the Energy Ministry to secure diesel for the 10 hospitals struggling the most to keep their generators running; however, he said, “the amount gathered is barely enough to cover one or two days.” A health care facility shutdown is just one among an array of concerns arising from the almost complete stoppage of state-provided electricity and widespread diesel rationing by private generator owners amid ongoing fuel shortages. These shortages leave businesses, institutions and households bereft of power for hours at time, compromising everything from water supply to food safety.
Civil Defense volunteers and the army extinguished five large fires over the weekend — two near Saida, one in the Chouf, one in Bikfaya and one in Chekka. The Chekka fire, which broke out in the dry grass along the Chekka–al-Hari highway, reached a disused asbestos products factory, causing asbestos dust to disperse in the air, L’Orient-Le Jour reported. Civil Defense spokesperson George Aboumoussa said the blaze caused no human casualties. Of the two fires near Saida, one started at Darb al-Sim then spread to Maghdoushe, while the other broke out in dead grassland in the Faouar area and caused five people to require treatment for smoke inhalation, Abdullah Hallak, a spokesperson for Saida’s Civil Defense group, said. Lastly, wildfires in the Bater area of the Chouf and Bikfaya were put out before they reached residential areas. As hot and breezy weather conditions conducive to rampant wildfires persist, Aboumoussa told L’Orient Today that most such blazes are either advertently or inadvertently ignited by human activity, such as setting small fires at picnics or to repel snakes, or parking cars with hot engines in areas of dry grass.
The southern border remained calm over the weekend, following rocket fire and airstrikes late last week. Tensions peaked on Friday when Hezbollah responded to Wednesday night’s Israeli airstrikes on Lebanese territory by firing a volley of rockets toward open ground in the Israeli-occupied Shebaa Farms area. However, fears of an impending conflict escalation were largely assuaged Saturday when Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah said in a televised speech that the party had responded to Israeli airstrikes in a “appropriate and proportional way” by directing its rocket fire at open land. He noted, however, that Hezbollah could escalate its actions in the future if the party deemed it appropriate to do so. Meanwhile, UN Secretary-general Antonio Guterres said “it is paramount that all actors involved avoid actions that can … heighten tensions and lead to miscalculation,” while the US State Department called on Lebanon to stop the Shiite party from carrying out rocket attacks from its territory.
Najib Mikati is expected to meet with Michel Aoun for the seventh time today since the former’s appointment on July 26 to lead the next cabinet. After his last meeting with the president on Friday Mikati spoke positively of government formation efforts, saying from Baabda that negotiations “were coming to an end”; however, he did not offer any indication of when he expected to announce a new cabinet. Two weeks ago, at the outset of his appointment as premier-designate, Mikati set himself a three-week deadline to form a government. But, as reports abound about disputes over who will hold the justice and interior ministries, it remains to be seen if Lebanon’s third prime-minister designate in a year will this week succeed where his predecessors have failed and agree a cabinet lineup with Aoun. It is exactly one year today since Hassan Diab’s government resigned in the aftermath of the Beirut port explosion.
Top officials are set to meet today to discuss the future of subsidies. The caretaker deputy prime minister, energy minister, economy minister and the central bank governor will meet to discuss a ration cards proposal to replace the current subsidies scheme for essential goods. At the end of June, MPs passed a law to provide a $556 million “exceptional credit” to fund a ration cards program with no clear funding or disbursement mechanism in place. As Banque du Liban’s foreign currency reserves reached a critical threshold, caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab gave an “exceptional approval” on June 25 to partially lift subsidies by financing fuel imports at the exchange rate of LL3,900 to the US dollar “for the next three months,” raising fuel prices by about 50 percent. On Monday, hourslong queues returned to gas stations throughout the country after local media outlets reported that officials had decided to remove subsidies on gasoline. The rumor was denied late yesterday afternoon by the caretaker deputy prime minister’s office.
