Parliament meets on April 18, 2023. (Credit: Ali Fawaz)
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During its meeting yesterday, the caretaker cabinet approved supplements for public employees and military personnel, raised the private sector monthly minimum wage to LL9 million, increased transportation allowances and granted financing for medicine imports and sanitation contracts, the state-run National News Agency reported. Cabinet additionally stipulated that all private sector employees be granted a LL4.5 million increase to their monthly salaries to counter inflation. The government approved “temporary” payments for public sector employees who attend at least 14 days of work (excluding diplomats at Lebanese foreign missions and employees who receive non-lira payments), set at multiples of their salaries compared to what they were on Jan. 1, 2020 and capped at LL50 million. The increase is scheduled to start at the end of May. The payment is quadruple public employees’ 2020 salaries, with the minimum payment being LL8 million. The payment for military personnel and retirees is three times their 2020 salaries, with a minimum value set at LL7 million. Transportation allowances have been increased to LL450,000 for public sector employees per working day (up to 12 days for Lebanese University faculty) and to LL250,000 per working day for private sector employees. The cabinet session was preceded by a protest in downtown Beirut attended by hundreds of army retirees, civil servants, “old rent” property owners and public school teachers demanding dollarized salaries along with better transportation allowances and medical coverage.
Parliament extended mokhtar and municipal council mandates for a maximum of one year amid challenges in financing the municipal elections previously scheduled for May. At the end of a cabinet meeting, caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati called on the Interior Minister and other officials to propose new dates for the election along with project costs, the state-run National News Agency reported. In light of the extension, Mikati said the government would use the additional time to further discuss the municipal elections and ensure their financing. The terms of municipal councils and mokhtars (local officials responsible for records) are now set to expire at the latest on May 31, 2024 following a push for the extension by MPs from the Amal Movement, Hezbollah and the Free Patriotic Movement, against a boycott by the Kataeb and the Lebanese Forces. In a Monday statement announcing the boycott, LF leader Samir Geagea claimed that the presidential vacuum renders Parliament an “electoral body” adding that there is no “justified reason” preventing the government from financing the elections. Sourcing the $8 million needed to hold the municipal elections, as estimated by caretaker Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi, led to a clash pitting the Lebanese Forces and Kataeb, who proposed the use of the government’s IMF Special Drawing Rights (SDR), against the wishes of caretaker Finance Minister Youssef Khalil, who refused to “legally sanction” the SDR’s use and instead proposed financing the ballot through a LL1.5 billion appropriation in the 2022 budget. In 2016, most of the current municipal councils and mokhtars were voted-in for six-year terms. Last year, however, municipal elections were postponed due to a scheduling conflict with the parliamentary elections.
Sleiman Frangieh, leader of the Marada Movement and Hezbollah and Amal’s favored presidential candidate, said that he would call for a “national dialogue” on defense strategy if elected president. During a meeting with Maronite Patriarch Bechara al-Rai, Frangieh reported on his visit to Paris last month, claiming he had expressed his support for reforms listed by the International Monetary Fund as preconditions for a multibillion dollar aid package. Frangieh additionally touted his ties to Syria, which appears to be exiting diplomatic isolation in the Arab world for the first time in more than a decade. Lebanon has been without a president since the end of Michel Aoun’s term on Oct. 31. The next election round has yet to be scheduled after almost a dozen attempts by Parliament to name a successor have failed. Frangieh’s name appeared only once amid the ballots cast, which have mostly been divided between protest votes cast by Hezbollah, Amal and their allies on one side, and Lebanese Forces’ and their allies’ votes for Zgharta MP Michel Moawad on the other. Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea earlier this month said he would refuse any candidate backed by Hezbollah and its allies regardless of “his name or identity.”
The UK government announced that Lebanese businessman Nazem Said Ahmad has been “prevented from trading in the UK art markets” as part of new sanctions for allegedly financing Hezbollah. The UK government’s statement said Ahmad’s assets in the UK have been frozen and that its citizens are now prohibited from conducting business with him. The statement claimed that Ahmad owns an extensive art collection in the UK and conducts business with UK-based artists, galleries and auction houses. In 2019, the US Treasury leveled sanctions against Ahmad, listing him as one Hezbollah’s “top donors” and accusing him of tax evasion, money laundering and “blood diamond” smuggling, as well as using his art collection to mitigate the effect of sanctions. Yesterday, Washington issued fresh sanctions against an international network of 52 individuals and entities operating out of Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates and Britain who allegedly supported Ahmad. The US also announced yesterday that it is offering a reward of up to $7 million for information on Ibrahim Aqil, a Hezbollah leader. The announcement came on the 40th anniversary of the bombing of the US Embassy in Beirut. “During the 1980s, Aqil was a principal member of the Hezbollah terrorist cell, the Islamic Jihad Organization, which claimed responsibility for the bombings of the US Embassy in Beirut in April 1983, resulting in the death of 63 people,” a US State Department statement announcing the reward said.
Free entrance to some archaeological sites and museums will be granted from today until next Tuesday, Lebanese caretaker Minister of Culture Mohammad Mortada announced yesterday. The move is being made to celebrate World Heritage Day. The archeological sites in Baalbeck and Anjar in the Bekaa, the hippodrome in Sour and the citadel in Jbeil are among the monuments accessible free of charge for the next week. Mortada also encouraged visits to the Rachid Karameh fair in Tripoli and the Wadi Qannoubine valley in northern Lebanon.
In case you missed it, here’s our must-read story from yesterday: “Summons of Nizar Saghieh continues to cause backlash”
Compiled by Abbas Mahfouz