Rescue boat with hundreds of migrants on board asks EU to find it a port
Author:
Reuters
ID:
1625594155481002500
Tue, 2021-07-06 10:34
ROME: A charity group asked the European Union on Tuesday to find a port where it can dock to disembark hundreds of migrants it has rescued in the central Mediterranean over recent days.
Some 572 people, including 183 minors, are currently onboard the Ocean Viking vessel, the SOS Mediterranee organization said after it picked them up in six operations in Maltese and Libyan search and rescue areas.
The group said maritime authorities had not helped in the operations and urged the European Union to intervene.
“We are calling upon the EU to at least coordinate the disembarkation of the 572 survivors currently aboard our ship,” it said in a statement.
The statement did not give details of where the vessel was, but the marinetraffic.com website gave its position as between Malta and Sicily.
Migrant boat departures from north Africa toward Europe have picked up in 2021 after a decline in the previous few years.
Scores of migrants have died in recent days following shipwrecks as they tried to cross the Mediterranean to reach Italy, one of the main routes into Europe.
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After protests, Iran’s president apologizes over power blackouts
Author:
Reuters
ID:
1625594186981007200
Tue, 2021-07-06 13:01
DUBAI: President Hassan Rouhani apologized to Iranians on Tuesday over massive power outages during a heatwave that have drawn widespread criticism and triggered street protests.
Officials have blamed the blackouts on surging demand for power, along with low rainfall cutting hydroelectric output and illegal cryptocurrency mining farms accessing subsidised electricity.
“I apologize to our dear people who have faced problems and suffering in the past few days and I urge them to cooperate (by curbing power use). People complain about power outages and they are right,” Rouhani said in remarks carried by state TV.
“The Energy Ministry is not at fault… but the minister should come and explain to the people what the problem is and we have to find a solution.”
Angry residents gathered in several cities to protest against the outages, which often did not follow blackout schedules announced by the state-run electricity companies, according to Iranian news outlets and postings on social media.
Protests turned political is some areas, with people chanting “Death to the dictator” and “Death to (Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali) Khamenei” and other slogans during blackouts, according to videos posted on social media.
Reuters could not independently verify the videos’ authenticity.
“Protesters said the frequent power outages had caused many problems, including water cuts in apartments, spoilage of meat and poultry and other items in refrigerators, and damage to household appliances,” the semi-official ISNA news agency reported from the northeastern town of Kordkuy.
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Lebanon’s drug trade booms on the back of Hezbollah’s Captagon connection
Mon, 2021-07-05 21:43
BEIRUT: Lebanese security forces say they have launched dozens of operations in recent months in search of laboratories manufacturing Captagon pills, while closely monitoring coastal and land borders with Syria in an effort to identify smuggling routes.
The country’s fight against drugs, though, is an uphill battle, amid multiple overlapping crises, notably its economic collapse and political paralysis.
And the elephant in the room is Hezbollah: Many suspect the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group facilitates the illicit drug trade to finance its operations while maintaining plausible deniability.
Captagon is an amphetamine, and one of the most commonly used drugs on Middle East battlefields.
Combatants addicted to the narcotic say it helps them stay awake for days and numbs their senses, giving them stamina for long battles and allowing them to kill with abandon.
Owing to its ability to make users energetic and happy, Captagon is known to have also become a popular recreational drug in the wider region.
Since Saudi Arabia’s customs authorities thwarted an attempt in April to smuggle more than five million Captagon pills from Lebanon into the Kingdom, hidden inside a shipment of pomegranates, officials say criminal syndicates have become even more “brazen.”
It was after this consignment of Captagon was discovered that Saudi Arabia suspended shipments of Lebanese fruit and vegetables entering the Kingdom or transiting through its territory.
Saudi Arabia’s customs authorities thwarted an attempt in April to smuggle more than five million Captagon pills from Lebanon into the Kingdom, hidden inside a shipment of pomegranates. (SPA)
At the time, Lebanese authorities said “the drug-stuffed shipment entered Lebanon from Syria and was repackaged in an area of the Bekaa Valley before being shipped to the port of Jeddah.”
Two Syrian brothers were arrested in Lebanon soon after the discovery, accused of repackaging the shipment at an abandoned warehouse in Bekaa. But even this major bust was not enough to put the smugglers out of business.
On June 15, Lebanon’s Internal Security Forces (ISF) thwarted another attempt to smuggle 37.2 kg of Captagon pills into Saudi Arabia via Beirut’s Rafic Hariri International Airport, hidden inside a consignment of electric water pumps.
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Three people were arrested, including the alleged ringleader, a stateless person with a history of drug smuggling, along with a Syrian and a Lebanese.
The trio reportedly confessed to setting up a smuggling network and claimed they had received the shipment from Syria before transporting it to Beirut.
The ISF’s best efforts, though, were not enough. Saudi authorities at the port of Jeddah announced another major drug bust on June 26, seizing an estimated 14 million Captagon pills hidden inside iron plates sent from Lebanon.
Saudi officials say criminal syndicates have become even more “brazen” in their attempts to smuggle drugs. (SPA/File Photo)
Mohammed Al-Nujaidi, spokesperson for the Kingdom’s General Directorate of Narcotics Control, confirmed the arrest of a Saudi citizen in the Riyadh area in connection with the shipment.
On June 29, Lebanese authorities seized another haul of Captagon pills also destined for Saudi Arabia. In a statement, the ISF said 17.4 kg, the equivalent of 100,000 pills, were seized. “They were expertly hidden inside medical equipment sterilization machines,” the statement added. Two Lebanese and one Syrian national were reportedly arrested.
In July 2020, Italian police and customs agents at the port of Salerno found 84 million Captagon tablets in shipping trailers that appeared to contain only paper rolls.
Intelligence officials concluded the drugs, worth an estimated $1.1 billion, originated in factories located in parts of Syria controlled by President Bashar Assad’s government.
“The amphetamines departed Syria from Latakia, a coastal city with dedicated Iranian port facilities and a known hub for smuggling operations by Tehran’s ally, Hezbollah,” the Washington Post said.
In July 2020, Italian police and customs agents at the port of Salerno found 84 million Captagon tablets in shipping trailers that appeared to contain only paper rolls. (AFP/Guardia di Finanza Handout/File Photo)
Hezbollah strenuously denies the charge that it is involved in drug trafficking, but the Post report quoted US and Middle East analysts as saying: “Facing extreme financial pressures because of US sanctions, the coronavirus pandemic and Lebanon’s economic collapse, Hezbollah appears to be growing increasingly reliant on criminal enterprises, including drug smuggling, to finance its operations.”
Hatem Madi, a former Lebanese public prosecutor, told Arab News: “The Captagon pill trade became active because it is easier to smuggle, and faster.
“It is subject to supply and demand. There is no doubt that the war in Syria has left the door open for smugglers and drug traffickers.”
Indeed, Lebanon has become a major conduit for smuggling of Captagon pills manufactured in Syria. Even before the country’s descent into civil war in 2011, its territory was used by Lebanese militias to cultivate and smuggle marijuana, generating millions of dollars.
“Captagon is manufactured in Syria, especially in the regions of Homs and Aleppo,” Brig. Gen. Anwar Yahya, a former head of Lebanon’s judicial police, told Arab News.
“In light of the events taking place in Syria, some of the factories have relocated to the villages found between Lebanon and Syria on the Anti-Lebanon Mountain Range and in the areas of Qusair and Tufail.”
The Daesh drugs, in the form of 84 million Captagon tablets, were worth about €1 billion, police said in a statement, describing the operation as “the biggest seizure of amphetamines in the world.” (AFP/Guardia di Finanza Handout/File Photo)
Western intelligence analysts claim Hezbollah operatives began manufacturing Captagon more than a decade ago but the drug began to gain prominence in tandem with the militia’s expanding commitments in Middle East conflicts.
“Is Hezbollah involved in manufacturing Captagon pills? This issue requires a judicial or security source,” Yahya told Arab News.
“However, the judiciary in Lebanon is silent. Is it out of fear or is the judiciary hiding something? I have no idea, but we are aware of the investigations and know who is involved.”
What is beyond doubt is that the Bekaa Valley, bordering Syria, is a Hezbollah hotbed. It has training camps in the region’s highlands and controls its own border crossings with Syria, where it has intervened in support of the Assad regime.
The most prominent person to be arrested by Lebanese authorities in Bekaa in connection with Captagon is Hassan Daqou. Dubbed the “King of Captagon,” Daqou had several business interests in Tufail, a town that overlaps the border with Syria and is controlled by Hezbollah.
However, following a local land dispute, Daqou was turned over to the Lebanese army, accused of establishing a Captagon laboratory in the area and overseeing a smuggling network sending pills to Greece and Saudi Arabia.
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“Daqou has ties with Hezbollah and the Fourth Division, which is headed by Maher Assad, the Syrian president’s brother,” Mohammed Al-Hujairi, a Future Movement MP, told Arab News.
Since the beginning of 2020, counterfeit Captagon and other illicit drugs have been seized in Egypt, Greece and Jordan besides Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Italy. Western law enforcement officials have specifically linked Hezbollah to drug seizures from the Syria-Jordan border to central and southern Europe.
But what interest might Hezbollah have in the production and trafficking of drugs?
“There are unusual smugglers that have a political or ideological background,” Ashraf Rifi, a former ISF director general who later served as Lebanon’s justice minister, told Arab News. “They do not work according to profit or loss considerations. Instead, they have political goals, namely targeting the opponent’s society.”
US and European drug agencies are convinced that Hezbollah profits from the drug trade. Europol issued a report in 2020 cautioning that Hezbollah members were using European cities as a base for trading in “drugs and diamonds” and to launder the profits. In 2018, the US State Department named Hezbollah among the top five global criminal organizations.
Captagon pills are displayed along with a cup of cocaine at an office of the Lebanese Internal Security Forces (ISF), Anti-Narcotics Division in Beirut. (AFP/File Photo)
Whether or not the drugs trade has been weaponized, it is certainly consuming a lot of the Lebanese government’s time and resources. According to one security source, measures taken by the security forces in recent years have led to the arrest of over 15,000 people.
Rifi said there had been seizures “unprecedented in the history of Interpol in regards to the quantities of narcotics being smuggled and the level of brazenness when it comes to smuggling and targeting.
“There is a partnership between Hezbollah and the Syrian side in terms of manufacturing and smuggling, while smuggling may also be undertaken unilaterally by one of the sides,” he said.
“The efforts aimed at countering drug smuggling from Lebanon require a wise administration. A corrupt administration that is subservient to Hezbollah makes a show of addressing the problem, but it does not actually defend the people or the interests of the country,” Rifi added.
Yahya believes Lebanon’s counternarcotics unit, a badly under-resourced and poorly utilized force, is fighting with one hand tied behind its back.
A string of major drug busts in Syria and Lebanon has drawn new attention to the trade in captagon, an illegal substance that has flourished in the chaos of Syria’s war. (AFP/File Photo)
“Unfortunately, the judicial police anti-drug office, which has files that date back dozens of years and include photos and fingerprints of the people and networks involved, is being sidelined,” he told Arab News.
“Instead, we see that the bodies handling these cases are the ISF Information Division, the customs, the army or people that have no jurisdiction over such issues.”
Yahya wants Lebanese authorities to tighten control along the borders, at the airport and seaports; equip border control personnel with scanners; activate the work of the anti-drug office and provide it with the necessary tools and staff.
More broadly, Lebanon must address its economic collapse and its ability to support its security personnel, who need to provide for their families.
“The delay in the government’s formation,” he said, “is a major, and possibly the main, obstacle standing in the way of activating the security apparatus and the role of the army.”
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Medicine shortage in Lebanon puts patients on brink of death
Mon, 2021-07-05 21:41
BEIRUT: Doctors and pharmacists raised their voices on Monday in protest against the lack of medicine amid the deteriorating Lebanese currency crisis.
In a growing spate of crises, shortages of fuel and medicine continued over the weekend.
These materials, as well as the food supply, are imported.
Food prices have soared. The price of sunflower oil has jumped by over 1,100 percent since the summer of 2019. The price of beef and rice has risen by 627 percent and 545 percent respectively over the same period.
The price of eggs has shot up by 450 percent, with labneh (Strained yogurt) costs jumping 275 percent.
Lebanese TV and social media circulated images of people screaming in the streets for milk and medicine, and electricity to save seriously ill children, who need oxygen devices in their homes.
Pharmacist Samer Soubra told Arab News: “People come to the pharmacy to ask for simple medicines, such as ear drops, but I do not have them.”
Soubra added: “I think that importers have a stockpile of medicines, but they refrain from distributing them to put pressure on the Banque du Liban to continue subsidizing medicine.
“There is no political decision yet to lift subsidies on medicine. It’s chaos.
“I expect within 10 days the scream will rise because sick people will get worse without treatment.”
Dr. Ismail Sukkarieh, a gastroenterologist, told Arab News: “A colleague of mine, a cardiologist, was not able to install a spring into a patient’s artery because there was no blood thinner and left him at the mercy of those who trade in people’s health.”
Dr. Sukkarieh pointed out that “the most missing medicines are those related to arterial hypertension and blood clots, and we do not know the reason.”
He asked: “How can I believe the importers who say that their drug stores are empty? It is a blackmail operation against the Banque du Liban.”
Dr. Sukkarieh held “those concerned with resolving the drug crisis responsible for any harm to, or death of any patient.”
The Syndicate of Pharmaceutical Importers had warned of running out of its “stocks of hundreds of essential medicines that treat chronic and incurable diseases.”
It suggested that “the stocks of hundreds of other medicines are likely to run out during July if we do not re-import as soon as possible.”
The syndicate indicated that “the import process has been almost completely halted for more than a month due to the accumulation of dues in favor of the exporting companies, whose value exceeded $600 million, and importing companies not obtaining prior approvals from the Banque du Liban to re-import.”
Meanwhile, the Lebanese continue to struggle with an energy crisis, as they endure contradictory statements from those responsible for securing fuel.
A member of the Syndicate of Gas Station Owners, George Brax, said that “things are heading toward a temporary solution after a ship loaded with gasoline began unloading its cargo. This will comfort the market and allow some closed stations to reopen their doors.”
Meanwhile, the Crisis Observatory at the American University of Beirut expected that “the Lebanese family will spend about LBP 2,130,000, or $1,420 at the official exchange rate, on one main meal within one month, which is equivalent to almost three times the minimum wage.”
The observatory followed the repercussions of the collapse of the Lebanese pound and monitored the inflation of basic food prices during June.
It said that “72 percent of families in Lebanon, whose income does not exceed LBP 2,400,000 per month, will find it difficult to secure their livelihood at the minimum, based on the household income figures stated in the Central Statistics Administration 2019 report and in light of the national currency losing about 99 percent of its value in less than two years.”
The Crisis Observatory report, a copy of which was obtained by Arab News on Monday, suggested that “this inflation will continue, with the expectation of a greater decline in the value of the Lebanese pound in the coming months.”
It added that if this trend continues, then the “food insecurity of the Lebanese population becomes a difficult reality, knowing that Lebanon has not yet reached the maximum effects of the deep crisis.”
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Ever Given to leave Egypt on Wednesday after final settlement contract signed
Author:
Mon, 2021-07-05 21:27
CAIRO: Egypt’s Suez Canal Authority (SCA) said a final settlement contract would be signed on Wednesday with the company that owns the Ever Given ship, and that participants would be able to watch the ship leaving on the same day.
The owners and insurers of the container ship that blocked the Suez Canal in March said on Sunday that a formal settlement had been agreed in a compensation dispute, and the canal authority said the vessel would be allowed to sail on July 7.
The authority has held the giant ship and its crew in a lake between two stretches of the waterway since it was dislodged on March 29 amid a dispute over a demand for compensation by the SCA.
A statement from SCA said the contract will be signed in the new Marina building, east of the canal, at 11 a.m. in the presence of its Chairman Lt. Gen. Osama Rabie, a representative of the ship-owning company and several ambassadors and international partners.
The Japanese-owned Ever Given had become stuck in high winds and remained wedged across the canal for six days, disrupting global trade.
Rabie confirmed that the Ever Given’s owners will present the authority with a gift of a 75-ton locomotive at Wednesday’s ceremony.
The chairman added in televised statements that the world is now talking about the achievement of the SCA for saving and floating the ship within a week.
The crisis alerted Egypt and the world to the importance of the canal, he added.
The canal earned revenue of $3 billion in the first six months of 2021, up 8.8 percent compared with the same period last year, despite the Ever Given accident, Rabie said.
In the first half of this year, 9,760 ships passed through the canal, an increase of 2 percent from the same period in 2020.