IMF deal in sight, Mawlawi condemns Houthi attacks, Parliament to meet: Everything you need to know to start your Monday

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Najib Mikati expects to sign an agreement with the IMF in the coming weeks, he announced during a speech at the Doha Forum on Saturday. The prime minister said that he hoped a preliminary agreement will be signed during the two-week round of negotiations due to commence on Tuesday, after a mission headed by the IMF president arrives in Lebanon. Mikati stressed that the country’s dismal economic predicament is the result of “problems piling up for 30 years,” adding that Lebanon has “no other choice but to cooperate with the IMF to put Lebanon on the track to recovery.” While at the forum, Mikati also said Lebanon “needs Arab support,” to re-establish ties with the Gulf countries, which have been severed since October following heated disagreements over the role of Iran-backed Hezbollah, whose arsenal has been in the crosshairs of the GCC and the international community as a whole. In light of the looming threat of food insecurity as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Mikati on Sunday urged Algerian Foreign Minister Ramtane Lamamra to greenlight sugar exports to Lebanon. Meanwhile, Agriculture Minister Abbas Hajj Hassan seemed to downplay the threat of food insecurity, as he assured citizens that “there is no crisis today in Lebanon.” He promised, on behalf of his ministry, that products will be imported from abroad in “double quantities,” especially at the beginning of the month of Ramadan, which is due to begin next weekend. Many fear, since the economic situation has only worsened since last year, that the Islamic month of fasting from sunrise to sunset will become a stark reminder of the country’s seemingly worsening woes. The American University of Beirut’s Crisis Observatory calculated last year that a month of fast-breaking iftar meals cost 2.5 times the minimum wage when the exchange rate of the dollar hovered around LL13,000 on the parallel market. Almost exactly a year later, that same dollar is worth around LL25,000, almost double, while minimum wage remains unchanged at LL675,000.

The deadly Aug. 4, 2020, Beirut port explosion, which had already left more than 200 dead and 6,500 injured, claimed two more victims over the weekend. More than a year and a half after the avoidable tragedy, Rita Antoun Hardini’s death was announced on Sunday by Mariana Fodoulian, whose own sister died on Aug. 4, the state-run National News Agency reported. Fodoulian said Hardini was seriously injured on Aug. 4 after which she was kept on life support until she passed away on Saturday. Her funeral will be held today. On Saturday, Julia Audi, another victim of the blast, also succumbed to her injuries. Audi had remained in a coma for about a month after the explosion. The Aug. 4 explosion was the result of massive quantities of ammonium nitrate which caught fire and detonated after they had been unsafely stored in a port warehouse. Today, the investigation into the blast, led by Judge Tarek Bitar, is suspended due to numerous appeals filed against the judge by several political and security officials implicated in the case.

Lebanon’s Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi on Saturday condemned a series of attacks launched by Yemen's Houthi administration on Saudi infrastructure the day before. Mawlawi’s statement is in line with efforts to reestablish ties with Gulf monarchies, which were severed in October, partly due to differing opinions about Hezbollah’s role in the region, which includes the party’s staunch support of Yemen’s Houthi administration. “The targeting of Saudi safety is a clear and direct terrorist attack against Arab legitimacy,” Mawlawi tweeted. “We stand, as we always have, alongside the kingdom to face challenges launched against our common Arab security as well as any aggression towards Saudi sovereignty which goes against international accords,” he added. Houthi rebels carried out 16 attacks on the kingdom, one of which ignited a massive fire at an oil storage site in Jeddah, which has been hosting the Saudi Formula 1 Grand Prix. Saudi’s official news agency, SPA, announced that Riyadh carried out retaliatory airstrikes Friday night and Saturday. Some seven years after the first airstrikes launched against Yemen, the Riyadh-led military intervention has had little impact; meanwhile the humanitarian crisis in Yemen, one of the world’s worst, has deepened. According to the United Nations, the conflict has led to the deaths of nearly 380,000 people, most of which were due to hunger, disease and a lack of clean drinking water.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri will convene the first parliamentary session since Feb. 22 on Tuesday, at the UNESCO Palace. The session comes on the heels of a joint parliamentary committee session scheduled for today during which the Finance and Budget Committee and the Administration and Justice Committee will discuss a long-awaited capital control law. The capital control law is a crucial demand of the IMF in its negotiations with the Lebanese government to unlock a financial rescue package for the country mired in myriad crises. In the absence of such a law, which remains unpassed more than two years after the banking crisis was triggered in 2019, banks have imposed ad hoc controls on account holders’ deposits. This has led to billions of dollars having reportedly been transferred abroad, while the average citizen has been unable to access their dollar deposits unless they are willing to accept a haircut that would amount to a majority of their savings.

In case you missed it, here’s our must-read story from over the holiday weekend: “Beyond barriers: Who and where are the women running in Lebanon's May elections, and what are their prospects?”