View from the Corniche sea side in Beirut. (Credit: Stephanie Bechara)
-Over the past week, ticket prices for flights departing from Lebanon have reached levels deemed “exorbitant” by travelers amid high regional tensions. This observation was confirmed by several travel agents contacted by L’Orient Today, though others offered a different perspective.
“The price increase is dramatic and flights are fully booked,” said one agent, speaking on condition of anonymity. “Normal prices compared to typical high-season averages won’t be seen until Aug. 13 or 14,” he added. Even after that date, some travelers are facing unpleasant surprises. For instance, one traveler reported that the price of a round-trip from Beirut to Tbilisi between late August and early September with a low-cost airline had surged from $350 on July 29 to over $1,000 on Aug. 3 on an online booking site.
-War risk and political violence insurance premiums have considerably increased in the aftermath of an Israeli strike that killed senior Hezbollah commander, Fouad Shukur, in Beirut’s southern suburbs on July 30, and the subsequent assassination of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Iran. The attacks have left the entire region holding its breath in fear of the situation escalating into a full-scale war between the “Axis of Resistance” (Iran and its allies) and Israel.
The increase in the price of premiums, coupled with the reluctance of some insurance companies to provide these types of coverage in Lebanon, has had a significant impact on international shipping activities and air traffic.
-Lebanon’s caretaker finance minister, Youssef Khalil, agreed to grant the performance bonuses specified in Decree No. 13020 of Feb. 28, 2024, to employees of Electricite du Liban (EDL) and associated workers, according to several local media sources. L'Orient Today confirmed this with a source from the public establishment, who was not authorized to speak to the press.
This decision is expected to end the strike initiated this week by EDL employees, who had called for the bonus through their union. The bonus aims to partially compensate for salary losses due to the Lebanese lira's collapse during the five-year socio-economic crisis.
-Raja Salameh, the brother of the former governor of the Banque du Liban (BDL) Riad Salameh, was indicted on Friday in Paris as part of France’s investigations into suspected illicitly acquired Lebanese assets, his lawyer and a judicial source told AFP on Wednesday.
Raja Salameh was questioned on Thursday, Aug. 1, and Friday, Aug. 2, by the investigating judges overseeing the judicial inquiry that has been ongoing since July 2021 at the financial division of the Paris judicial court, according to a source close to the case.
At the end of the interrogation, Raja Salameh was charged with criminal conspiracy to commit offenses (embezzlement of public funds by a public official to the detriment of the State of Lebanon, aggravated breach of trust, active and passive corruption of a public official, concealment and organized money laundering of these offenses), as well as organized money laundering, the judicial source detailed. He has been placed under judicial control, which includes the obligation to post bail.
-After several years of stagnation, housing construction projects in Beirut are picking up again. Despite ongoing crises and the conflict in southern Lebanon, the city is witnessing a resurgence in building activity.
Real estate developers are starting to return to the capital, a change from the period between late 2019 and 2022 when almost no new projects were initiated.
This cautious resurgence in Beirut’s construction sector unfolds within a fragile economic and security landscape. Southern Lebanon has been gripped by deadly clashes between Hezbollah and the Israeli army since October, following the Gaza war.
-Fuel prices in Lebanon dropped slightly on Friday, while the price of a gas cylinder remained stable, according to the latest price list published by the Energy and Water Ministry.
Here are the new rates published on Friday:
Interview of the week
Carole Nakhle, CEO of U.K.-based energy consultancy firm Crystol Energy, explains to L’Orient Today why oil markets and prices have remained relatively unscathed despite the recent escalations which have pushed the region to the brink of a larger war.
Analysis of the week
The Lebanese government did not rule out the possibility of contributing to the reconstruction effort of the villages, homes and infrastructure destroyed in the war that has been raging between Israel and Hezbollah in southern Lebanon for the past 10 months. Billions of dollars in public funds could be used in the reconstruction efforts, thanks to a budget surplus and possible support from Banque du Liban (BDL). Read Mounir Younes’ piece:
