Search
Search

MORNING BRIEF

Bank depositor desperation, Parliament fails to elect president, internationally-opposed refugee return plan to start tomorrow: Everything you need to know to start your Tuesday

Here’s what happened over the weekend and what to expect today, Tuesday, Oct. 25

Bank depositor desperation, Parliament fails to elect president, internationally-opposed refugee return plan to start tomorrow: Everything you need to know to start your Tuesday

Syrian refugees sit near an informal camp in the Bekaa Valley, Lebanon, on Oct. 18, 2022. (Credit: Mohamed Azakir/Reuters/File Photo)

Want to get the Morning Brief by email? Click here to sign up.

Parliament will reconvene for a presidential election session on Thursday, four days before the end of President Michel Aoun’s term, after yesterday’s fourth attempt to name Aoun’s successor failed. Out of Parliament’s 128 MPs, 114 participated in yesterday’s session, which resulted again in a majority of protest votes, with 50 blank ballots thought to have been cast by MPs from Hezbollah, Amal Movement, the Free Patriotic Movement and their allies, 13 for “the new Lebanon,” two canceled ballots, and 10 for Issam Khalifeh. "The stalemate is due to the fact that the Parliament fails to elect a president and not because of the blank votes," FPM MP Alain Aoun said, emphasizing the need for consensus and dialogue — previously scheduled by Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri for after the presidential election deadline. Thirty-nine MPs, the majority of which affiliated with the Lebanese Forces and Kataeb, voted for parliamentarian Michel Moawad, who spoke with L'Orient-Le Jour in an exclusive interview, four less than in the previous round, which he attributed to the absence of MPs who had supported him. Ten Forces of Change MPs cast their ballots for professor Issam Khalifeh. Former Forces of Change bloc member MP Waddah Sadek — who yesterday announced he was no longer part of the opposition MP coalition — claimed, however, that Khalifeh does not wish to run for office. “Everyone is waiting for an external intervention, and, in my opinion, this is ought to happen,” MP Jamil al-Sayyed said, after international actors repeatedly urged Lebanese authorities to elect a president before the end of Aoun’s term. Failure to elect a president by the end of the month while a caretaker cabinet is in force would induce Lebanon’s first total executive power vacuum.

"We don't want all our money, but just enough to cover the cost of the surgery," said the father of a man who yesterday forcibly recovered a portion of his deposit from a Blom Bank branch in Saida, South Lebanon. The depositor, after threatening to immolate himself, recovered a portion of his deposit intended to cover his two-month-old son’s heart surgery, the child’s grandfather said. Depositors who initiated holdups have repeatedly cited medical expenses as the cause of their actions. Sali Hafez — who was recently granted bail after the main instigator in what would become a series of actions by depositors against banks — said her holdup aimed to finance the cost of her sister’s cancer treatment. Forces of Change MP Cynthia Zarazir held up a branch of Byblos Bank to cover the insurance deductible for surgery. Obfuscating access to health treatment is among the consequences of illegal restrictions placed by commercial banks on depositors’ accounts since the onset of the crisis in 2019. Banks have blamed the Lebanese government for its failure to address the crisis and for delaying the implementation of official capital control measures. The repeated holdups resulted in banks closing indefinitely as of Oct. 7 while providing basic services through ATMs.

The new Lebanese plan to repatriate Syrian refugees en masse will launch its inaugural trip Wednesday. General Security head Abbas Ibrahim previously announced the first trip would repatriate 1,600 Syrian refugees. Earlier this month President Michel Aoun revived a mass repatriation plan which had stagnated in June after authorities failed to agree on the details of its implementation. While caretaker minister of the displaced emphasized that the plan would prioritize “voluntary return,” international agencies deemed the situation in Syria unsafe, calling on authorities to guarantee the displaced are “safe and protected in Lebanon.” Ibrahim wagered international actors would support repatriation plans amid increased attempts of irregular migration by sea. The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) told L’Orient Today that Syrian nationals comprise the majority of irregular migrants departing Lebanese shores, citing increasingly difficult living circumstances engendered by the country’s economic collapse. Syrian nationals additionally face the pressure of discriminatory practices including “arrests at checkpoints of those with no legal papers, raids on camps, adoption of stricter movement rules, and tensions between host and refugee communities.”

The Health Ministry announced yesterday that it will fully cover the expenses of patients hospitalized for cholera. Since the first cholera case emerged in Lebanon on Oct. 6, as of Monday night, the number of infections rose to 287 cases, while 11 deaths people died from the disease. The incentive to seek medical treatment for cholera follows caretaker Health Minister Firas Abiad’s attribution of the deaths to a lack of treatment, calling on symptomatic individuals to seek medical assistance. The first cholera case is thought to have transferred over to North Lebanon from Syria where an outbreak of the disease was recorded. Cholera cases, however, are no longer confined to a single area, with traces of the disease having recently been found in Beirut and Mount Lebanon sewage water. The Health Ministry and a number of international organizations have announced measures attempting to curb disease spread, including supporting water infrastructure, deploying medical staff and procuring vaccines.

Syrian authorities canceled meetings with a Lebanese delegation to discuss the countries’ shared maritime border while the ratification of a US-mediated agreement on the southern maritime border between Lebanon and Israel was scheduled for Thursday. A Baabda President Palace source told L’Orient Today the visit was canceled due to scheduling issues. President Michel Aoun on Monday announced additional appointments for the Lebanese delegation’s trip headed by Deputy Parliament Speaker Elias Bou Saab — who received a national award for his role in the indirect maritime border negotiation with Israel. The drawn-out indirect negotiations between Lebanon and Israel concluded when both sides approved US mediator Amos Hochstein’s proposal and their respective amendments. “I think that this is a really great development, a historic agreement between two enemy countries,” Hochstein said in an interview with US news broadcaster CBS, hoping that the agreement will be signed Thursday. Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid on Monday expressed similar hopes, as opposition to the deal’s signature stirs under the influence of right-wing organizations in Israel.

In case you missed it, here's our must-read story from yesterday:Amid decreased hunting, birdwatchers gather at the tail end of the autumn migration.”

Compiled by Abbas Mahfouz

Want to get the Morning Brief by email? Click here to sign up.Parliament will reconvene for a presidential election session on Thursday, four days before the end of President Michel Aoun’s term, after yesterday’s fourth attempt to name Aoun’s successor failed. Out of Parliament’s 128 MPs, 114 participated in yesterday’s session, which resulted again in a majority of protest votes, with...