Jordanian Prime Minister Bisher al-Khasawneh met with his Lebanese counterpart Najib Mikati at Grand Serail yesterday. (Credit: Mohamed Azakir/Reuters)
Top officials took a step toward finalizing plans for the long-awaited government ration card intended to partially offset the impacts of removing import subsidies. The $556 million program was announced earlier this month with a planned date of Sept. 15 to begin the registration of potential beneficiaries, but the launch has been delayed amid debate over the details of the plan, including the funding source and the database that would be used to identify beneficiaries. Yesterday the prime minister and ministers of social affairs and economy signed an agreement on the “mechanism and criteria” for implementing the ration card and agreed to open “an exceptional additional credit for its financing” but did not give any further details. Economy Minister Amin Salam said discussions about funding the program are still ongoing. The law passed by Parliament authorizing the ration cards stipulates that the $300 million from the country’s allocation of Special Drawing Rights from the International Monetary Fund can be used to fund the card. Officials have also suggested that funds from a stalled World Bank public transport program could be shifted to the ration card, but the World Bank’s regional director Saroj Kumar Jha previously told L'Orient Today that this would require first that Parliament cancel the transport project and then approval from the board of the World Bank. Meanwhile, a separate cash assistance program for which the World Bank’s board approved funding in January has yet to get off the ground.
Registration of expatriates wishing to vote from abroad is scheduled to begin today. Yesterday, Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi said the government was prepared for the first day of registration and dismissed concerns that the timeline was too tight now that elections are being planned for March 27, rather than May 8. “We are able with ease, and with certainty, to complete the elections on time,” the minister said at a press conference following a meeting with President Michel Aoun. In a separate press conference yesterday, the Lebanese Association for Democratic Elections said the authorities will not be able to carry out all the preparations needed for fair elections within the shortened time frame, including voter education and setting up mechanisms to monitor the process. LADE said if the elections are held in March, the polls will lack “accountability, fair and proper representation, and equal opportunities in exercising the right to vote and to run for office.”
The team that will negotiate with the IMF over a rescue package for Lebanon was formally designated yesterday. As expected, the negotiating team includes Deputy Prime Minister Saade Chami, Finance Minister Youssef Khalil, Economy Minister Amin Salam and Banque du Liban head Riad Salameh. The agreement between Aoun and Prime Minister Najib Mikati also stipulated that the delegation would include other ministers and the assistance of specialists based on the topics raised during the negotiation process. Also Thursday, the president said he has asked advisory firm Lazard, which drafted a financial recovery plan for Lebanon before talks with the IMF stalled last year, to continue its advisory role in preparation for the new round of talks. The previous plan, which called for measures including a “gradual controlled devaluation” of the currency from the official rate of about LL1,500 to the US dollar to 3,000 lira to the dollar by 2024, was never implemented.
Hezbollah fighters shot down an Israeli drone outside the southern town of Yater yesterday, the organization announced in a statement. An Israeli army spokesperson said on Twitter that a military drone “fell” inside Lebanese territory and that an investigation was being conducted, without giving further details on the incident. A day earlier, on Wednesday, at least three Israeli gunboats entered Lebanese territorial water, according to the Lebanese Army.
Mikati met with the visiting Jordanian Prime Minister yesterday, who was joined by a delegation of Jordanian ministers. The two men discussed a proposal, supported by the United States, for Lebanon to import Egyptian natural gas via a pipeline that runs through Jordan and Syria, and a simultaneous US-supported proposal for Lebanon to import Jordanian electricity, transmitted over the Syrian electrical grid. The US appears to have indicated participants in the energy deals will not be targeted by sanctions on the Syrian government. In what some are calling a further normalization of economic ties, on Wednesday Jordan fully reopened its main border crossing with Syria.