A precarious partnership, capital control law protest, ‘unbearable’ trash pileup: Everything you need to know to start your Tuesday

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The Free Patriotic Movement and Hezbollah’s partnership is in a precarious position, according to comments from FPM head Gebran Bassil, ahead of 2022’s final parliamentary presidential election effort. Hezbollah and the FPM are “on the verge” of ending their alliance, Bassil said Sunday, after a falling out over divergent stances on last week’s cabinet meeting “in the absence of a president and eight ministers who represent an essential group [the FPM].” At last Thursday’s Parliament session dedicated to the presidential election, the FPM did not cast blank votes in concert with Hezbollah and their allies as it had consistently done during previous sessions; however, it still did not put its support behind a particular candidate. The FPM boycotted an Oct. 8 cabinet meeting, considering it beyond cabinet’s prerogatives given the government’s caretaker status and the presidential vacuum in effect since Nov. 1. Hezbollah head Hassan Nasrallah countered Bassil’s allegations of the party betraying the FPM by supporting the meeting, denying any previous agreement on boycotts while emphasizing that Hezbollah’s stance on cabinet is unrelated to the presidential election. The two parties also disagree on the viability of Sleiman Frangieh’s presidential candidacy, reportedly supported by the former and disavowed by the latter. Parliament, after nine presidential election sessions, remains undecided on who the next head of state will be. The 10th and final attempt to elect a president in 2022 is scheduled for Thursday. United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon Joanna Wronecka yesterday delivered the latest call from the international community for a rapid conclusion to the presidential race during a meeting with Hezbollah parliamentary bloc head Mohammad Raad.

Depositors’ group Mouttahidoun (“United”) yesterday held a sit-in outside Parliament to protest a joint committee session discussing the capital control draft law. Commercial banks have imposed informal capital controls since the onset of the economic crisis in 2019, greatly limiting depositors’ access to their foreign currency funds. Capital controls — after two years of discussions and their inclusion among the International Monetary Fund’s conditions to unlock a multibillion dollar aid package — have yet to be enacted into official measures. Mouttahidoun founder Rami Ollaik — implicated in a number of bank holdups by depositors demanding access to their own funds — criticized the draft law’s prevention of legal action against banks and demanded the inclusion of measures to restore funds reportedly transferred abroad while bank restrictions were in force. Protesters have repeatedly opposed Parliament’s formulations of the capital control law.

French energy company TotalEnergies announced plans to begin exploitation in the Lebanon Block 9 offshore gas project from next year. The energy firm said it would select a drilling rig vendor within the first quarter of the coming year, confirming a company delegation’s scheduled deployment of the platform in 2023 amid then-President Michel Aoun’s calls for expediting exploration. TotalEnergies, represented through affiliated firms DAJA 215 and DAJA 216, owns a stake in a consortium licensed to explore Lebanese offshore oil and gas blocks No. 4 — located in the central-eastern part of the exclusive economic zone (EEZ), opposite the coastline of Jbeil and Batroun — and No. 9 (in the south, adjoining the disputed area whose division between Lebanon and Israel was settled in an agreement reached earlier this year). After the conclusion of Lebanon’s US-mediated indirect maritime border negotiations with Israel, the French energy company announced an agreement allowing the start of exploration with consortium partner Italian energy company Eni. The Lebanese Energy Ministry took over Russian energy firm Novatek’s share in the consortium after its exit from the association of companies. However, the licensing rights were later transferred to DAJA 216. Qatari state energy firm QatarEnergies is reportedly eyeing a share in the consortium as well. While exploration efforts advance for Block 9 and exploratory drilling in 2020 found no commercially viable quantity of hydrocarbons in Block 4, the eight remaining Lebanese offshore oil and gas blocks struggle to incite bids.

Unsettled bills are the reported cause of an “unbearable” trash pileup in Saida amid a work stoppage by the sanitation company covering the area. New Trading and Contracting, the company responsible for garbage collection in the area, halted work due to a lack of funds to fuel vehicles and a lack of dues payment from the government, a senior employee of the company told L'Orient Today. Saida independent MP Oussama Saad described the situation as “unbearable,” adding that it constitutes a “health and environmental emergency.” The problem repeatedly occurs in the area, L’Orient Today’s correspondent reported. Interruptions to trash collection repeatedly flooded streets with waste across Lebanon. Unpaid government dues have also caused problems in other sectors, recently jeopardizing the continued treatment of state-insured patients undergoing dialysis and cancer treatment.

In case you missed it, here's our must-read story from yesterday: “New Human Rights Watch survey shows the depths of hunger and poverty in Lebanon”

Compiled by Abbas Mahfouz