BEIRUT: Anne Grillo, the French ambassador to Lebanon, on Tuesday said that the blame for the crisis in the country lies squarely with a succession of ruling authorities. She was responding to comments by caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab, who accused the international community of “punishing the Lebanese and turning its back on Lebanon, while pressuring and besieging the country.”

Grillo said: “The current situation in Lebanon is the result of mismanagement by the successive officials, who are still making mistakes; it is not the result of an external blockade.

“The world is already helping the Lebanese and not waiting for an invitation to a meeting to help them.”

Earlier in the day Diab called the ambassadors and other representatives of diplomatic missions and international organizations to a meeting at his Grand Serail offices and delivered a speech in which he called on “the world to save Lebanon.”

He said: “The severe crises experienced by the Lebanese people at various levels are pushing toward a major catastrophe whose repercussions cannot be contained. The Lebanese are facing a dark fate. The picture has become clear: Lebanon and the Lebanese are on the brink of a disaster.

“The danger that threatens the Lebanese will not be limited to them. When we hit rock bottom, the repercussions will resonate outside Lebanon’s geography. No one will be able to isolate themselves from the risk of Lebanon’s collapse.

“Lebanese stability is the basis for regional stability. With the presence of about 1.5 million Syrian refugees and hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees, it will be difficult to predict the consequences of Lebanon’s stability falling apart.”

Diab added: “Continuing to punish the Lebanese will inevitably lead to serious repercussions, as things will get out of control. Linking assistance for Lebanon to the formation of the government has become a threat to the lives of the Lebanese and the Lebanese entity. The pressures that are being exerted and the blockade imposed on Lebanon do not affect the corrupt; rather, the Lebanese people alone pay a heavy price that threatens their lives and their future.”

He said that neither his government, which resigned in August last year amid the outrage over the devastating explosion at Beirut’s port, nor any other government can save Lebanon from its predicament without the help of friendly countries and international institutions.

He added: “This government does not have the right to resume negotiations with the International Monetary Fund to implement the recovery plan set by the cabinet, for this entails obligations on the next government that it may not endorse. The absolute priority is thus to form a government. Staying trapped in this vicious cycle that has lasted for 11 months now is no longer acceptable.”

Diab’s speech was broadcast live on Lebanese TV but when Grillo began to respond, the coverage was cut off. The French envoy said the meeting was a little too late.

“The Lebanese crisis is the result of mismanagement that lasted for decades,” said Grillo. “Paris and its partners have been providing support to Lebanon for months without waiting for Diab to ask them to save Lebanon.

“The resigned government is able, even in a caretaker position, to negotiate with international financial institutions to address the dangerously deteriorating situation that Lebanon has reached.”

Several other ambassadors responded to Diab’s comments with similar strong words but the PM’s media office chose only to convey his speech and not the comments that followed.

The accusations in Diab’s speech were consistent with those in a speech by Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah on Monday, in which he blamed the US “for the suffering of the Lebanese people.”

He said: “The main reason for the crisis is the US policy that wants to besiege, punish and prevent any aid that comes to Lebanon, be it in the form of deposits in the Central Bank or in the form of donations or loans … the US is the one preventing this.”

Meanwhile, the Lebanese people on Tuesday witnessed yet another fiasco involving state institutions amid the economic collapse. At noon, the members of two patrols from the state security got into a fistfight at a gas station in Furn El-Chebbak, an eastern suburb of Beirut.

A fuel shortage has caused clashes among people armed with sticks and knives, and even shootings at gas stations in several areas, especially in southern Lebanon and Bekaa.

All negotiations to form a new government have ground to a halt in light of the ongoing dispute between President Michel Aoun and Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.”

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.

“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.

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.

“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.”

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.”