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'Syria used chemical weapons in 2018 attack'

By - Apr 13,2021 - Last updated at Apr 13,2021

THE HAGUE — The Syrian army used the chemical weapon chlorine in an attack on the town of Saraqib in 2018, the global toxic arms watchdog said on Monday after an investigation.

The report is the second by an investigations team set up by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which has the new power to apportion blame for attacks.

The OPCW said in a statement that the Investigations and Identification Team (IIT) "concludes that units of the Syrian Arab Air Force used chemical weapons in Saraqib on February 4, 2018".

"There are reasonable grounds to believe that, at approximately 21:22 on February 4, 2018, a military helicopter of the Syrian Arab Air Force under the control of the Tiger Forces hit eastern Saraqib by dropping at least one cylinder," the OPCW report said.

“The cylinder ruptured and released chlorine over a large area, affecting 12 named individuals.”

OPCW investigators interviewed 30 witnesses, analysed samples collected at the scene, reviewed symptoms reported by victims and medical staff and examined satellite imagery to reach their conclusions, The Hague-based organisation said.

“Symptoms... included shortness of breath, skin irritation, chest pain, and coughing,” the report said.

However it said it “regrets” that the Syrian government refused to grant access to the site, some 48 kilometres south of Aleppo, despite repeated requests.

Syria has continued to deny the use of chemical weapons and insists it has handed over its weapons stockpiles under a 2013 agreement, prompted by a suspected sarin attack that killed 1,400 people in the Damascus suburb of Ghouta.

But OPCW investigators said they believed that orders for the 2018 Saraqib attack must have come from above, and that there was no indication that “rogue elements or individuals” were responsible.

“The IIT obtained information from various sources suggesting that, for chemical weapons to be used in the manner described above, orders would be required,” the full report on the attack said.

While it had not identified a “specific chain of command”, the Syrian military general command appeared to have “delegated decisions on the use of chlorine to “operational level commanders”, the OPCW said.

OPCW states will vote later this month on whether to impose sanctions on Syria, including the suspension of its voting rights in the organisation, over its failure to comply with its rules.

The OPCW’s governing body has told Syria it must declare all details about the facilities used to produce the sarin and chlorine used in the 2017 attacks.

Western powers have expressed concern that Damascus has failed to declare and destroy all its chemical weapons under the 2013 deal.

The OPCW chief said in March there were still gaps and inconsistencies in Syria’s reports to the body.

The United Nations said in March that Damascus had for years failed to reply to a series of 19 questions about its weapons installations, which could have been used to stock or produce chemical weapons.

Iran accuses Israel of sabotage at nuclear site, vows revenge

Biden tries to revive accord with Tehran

By - Apr 13,2021 - Last updated at Apr 13,2021

An Iranian man walks down a street in the capital Tehran, on Monday, following the tightening of restrictions to curb the surge of COVID-19 cases (AFP photo)

TEHRAN — Iran charged Monday that its arch-enemy Israel was behind an attack on its Natanz uranium enrichment plant and vowed it would take "revenge" and ramp up its nuclear activities.

The Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran (AEOI) said a "small explosion" had hit the plant's electricity distribution centre Sunday in what the foreign ministry labelled an Israeli act of "terrorism".

The latest of a string of incidents hitting Iran's nuclear programme came days after talks resumed in Vienna to salvage the battered 2015 Iranian nuclear deal that former US president Donald Trump abandoned.

His successor Joe Biden wants to revive the accord between Iran and a group of world powers, which places limits on the Islamic republic's nuclear programme in return for relief from punishing economic sanctions.

Israel strongly opposes the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and has vowed to stop Iran from building an atomic bomb — a goal Tehran has always strongly denied pursuing.

Iran initially reported a power blackout had hit the Natanz site Sunday, a day after it announced it had started up advanced uranium enrichment centrifuges banned under the deal.

Israel did not claim responsibility for the incident, but unsourced media reports in the country attributed it to the Israeli security services carrying out a "cyber operation".

The New York Times, quoting unnamed US and Israeli intelligence officials, also said there had been "an Israeli role" in the attack in which an explosion had "completely destroyed" the power system which fed the site's "underground centrifuges".

 

Israeli 'terrorism' 

 

Israeli embattled Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, while hosting US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin in Jerusalem, reiterated Monday his stance that Israel will prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, without mentioning the Natanz incident.

“I will never allow Iran to obtain the nuclear capability to carry out its genocidal goal of eliminating Israel, and Israel will continue to defend itself against Iran’s aggression and terrorism,” he said.

Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Khatibzadeh earlier vowed that Iran’s response to the Natanz incident would be to take “revenge on the Zionist regime” when and where Tehran chooses.

“Of course the Zionist regime, with this action, tried to take revenge on the people of Iran for their patience and wise attitude regarding the lifting of sanctions,” he said.

The head of the AEOI, Ali Akbar Salehi, said that “this incident was certainly sabotage”, state news agency IRNA reported.

In a separate report by the Fars news agency, Salehi was quoted as saying that “the damaged centrifuges will be replaced with even more powerful” ones.

In a related incident AEOI spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi suffered an accident on Sunday while inspecting the site when he “fell from a few meters and suffered light fractures on his feet and head”, an IRNA report said.

Kamalvandi gave a video interview from his hospital bed Monday to the Tasnim news agency in which he voiced confidence that after the “small explosion... they can quickly repair the damaged areas”.

 

Avoiding ‘trap’ 

 

Tehran has blamed Israel for previous attacks on its nuclear facilities and experts — including the killing last November of its top nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh.

Natanz was the site of a previous incident last July, during which a building was damaged, an incident for which some Iranian media also blamed Israel.

Israel and Iran have long fought a shadow war, with Israel often striking Iran-allied forces in war-torn Syria. Since early March, both countries have also accused each other of a number of maritime attacks.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Tehran would not allow the Natanz attack to affect the Vienna talks. Iran must avoid “falling in the trap” set by Israel, he told a parliamentary meeting.

The European Union said it “rejects any attempts” to undermine the Vienna talks and stressed the “need to clarify the facts” over the incident.

Russia said it was closely following the situation surrounding the “serious incident” and that “if it is confirmed that someone’s malicious actions are behind this incident, then such intent deserves strong condemnation”.

Germany, a partner to the nuclear accord, also warned that the “development in Natanz” was “not a positive contribution” to the negotiations.

Qatar expressed its “strong condemnation” of what it labelled “a dangerous act of sabotage that would increase tension and negatively affect the security and stability of the region”.

Yemen's Houthi insurgents claim strikes on Saudi oil plants

United Nations calls for diplomatic solution

By - Apr 13,2021 - Last updated at Apr 13,2021

UN Special Envoy for Yemen Martin Griffiths (left) and German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas deliver a press conference following talks at the Foreign Ministry in Berlin on Monday (AFP photo)

DUBAI/BERLIN — Yemen's Houthis claimed Monday to have launched drone strikes against Saudi energy giant Aramco's facilities, amid an upsurge in fighting between the insurgents and the Riyadh-backed government in northern Yemen.

Neither Aramco or Saudi authorities immediately reported any attack.

Houthi spokesman Yahya Saree said in a statement carried by the rebels' Al Masirah television that the strikes took place overnight, in retaliation for the six-year military campaign led by Saudi Arabia in Yemen.

He said the Houthis had targeted Aramco refineries in the western Saudi city of Jeddah and in Jubail in the east, with 10 drones launched at dawn.

He also said the Houthis hit "sensitive military areas" in the southern cities of Khamis Mushait and Jizan, with five drones and two ballistic missiles.

On Sunday, the coalition said it had intercepted and destroyed Houthi drones targeting Khamis Mushait and Jizan.

The Iran-aligned rebels have struck Aramco facilities in the past, underscoring the vulnerability of Saudi Arabia's expensive and strategically vital oil infrastructure.

Last November, the rebels hit an Aramco plant in Jeddah with a Quds-2 missile, tearing a hole in an oil tank and triggering an explosion and fire, the company said.

The rebels' latest claim comes a day after at least 70 pro-government and Houthi fighters were killed in fierce fighting for Yemen's strategic northern city of Marib.

The Houthis have been trying to seize Marib, the capital of an oil-rich region and the government’s last significant pocket of territory in the north, since February.

Meanwhile, the United Nations called on Monday on all parties involved in the conflict in Yemen to “seize the opportunity” for a diplomatic solution as world powers held virtual talks.

UN Special Envoy for Yemen Martin Griffiths told reporters in Berlin ahead of the negotiations that peace efforts had reached a “critical moment” after six years of fighting.

“This is a moment for responsible leadership,” he said, urging “the parties to seize the opportunity that exists now and negotiate in good faith without preconditions”.

He was in Berlin at the invitation of German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas.

The meeting brings together high-ranking officials from the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany, Sweden, Kuwait, and the EU, a format established in 2019 for the Yemen conflict.

Griffiths said the dire humanitarian situation required an immediate response.

“In these six years Yemenis have increasingly and appallingly, lacked access to food and medicine” as well as basic services and freedom of movement, he said.

Children had faced over six years “of being deprived of schooling, and being deprived of their future”.

“A generation has been lost,” he said.

Griffiths said a UN plan for a negotiated political settlement would first address “critical humanitarian needs and build confidence between the parties”.

“We hope together that an agreement on all those humanitarian measures will create a conducive environment for the parties to move swiftly to inclusive peace talks under the auspices of the UN to sustainably and comprehensively end the conflict,” he said.

The UN was committed to a “fair future” for the country’s people which “is deliverable, which is achievable, and which is long overdue”, Griffiths said.

The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people and pushed millions to the brink of famine, in what the United Nations has described as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

Turkey, Libya renew commitment to 2019 maritime deal

Apr 12,2021 - Last updated at Apr 12,2021

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (right) and Libya’s interim Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah pose for a photo during a signing ceremony after their meeting at the Presidential Palace in Ankara, on Monday (AFP photo)

ANKARA — Turkey and Libya on Monday renewed their commitment to a controversial maritime deal signed in 2019, as Libyan Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah paid his first official visit to Ankara.

Dbeibah was selected earlier this year through a UN-backed inter-Libyan dialogue to lead the country to national elections in December 2021.

His government replaces two rival administrations based in Tripoli and the country’s east, the latter loyal to military strongman Khalifa Hafter, whose forces tried but failed to seize the capital in a 2019-20 offensive.

Under the 2019 deal agreed by Ankara and the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA), Turkey claimed greater rights over vast areas of the Mediterranean but was challenged by other countries including Greece.

“Regarding the agreements signed by our countries, especially the maritime deal, we reaffirm that those agreements are valid,” Dbeibah said after talks with Erdogan.

The Turkish leader said the 2019 deal “secured the national interests and future of the two countries”.

“Today we reaffirmed our commitment to this matter,” Erdogan said.

The two leaders also signed a series of agreements before a press conference in the capital.

The Libyan premier said Turkish companies would play “an important role in Libya’s reconstruction given their long experience when it comes to working in Libya”.

Dbeibah added that the two countries will soon work towards “a free trade agreement”.

Turkey and the GNA had signed a military agreement alongside the maritime boundary deal which gave Ankara more rights to explore energy in the Mediterranean in November 2019.

Ankara’s military backing to the GNA during an offensive by Haftar helped turn the tide of the war in favour of Tripoli.

Erdogan said on Monday that Turkey would strengthen “solidarity and cooperation” with Libya.

“We will continue to give all kinds of support to the Government of National Accord as we did for the previous legitimate government,” the Turkish leader added.

He said that from Tuesday, Turkey would provide Libya with 150,000 coronavirus vaccine doses, without offering further details.

Libya has been mired in conflict since the 2011 NATO-backed uprising that toppled and killed veteran dictator Muammar Qadhafi.

But in October last year the two sides signed a truce before a UN-led process saw a new transitional government installed in February.

 

Somali MPs vote to extend president’s term for two years

By - Apr 12,2021 - Last updated at Apr 12,2021

MOGADISHU — Somalia’s lower house of parliament on Monday voted to extend the president’s mandate for two years, after months of deadlock over the holding of elections in the fragile nation.

But the speaker of the senate upper house, which would normally have to approve the legislation, immediately slammed the move as unconstitutional.

The country has been in constitutional crisis since the mandate of President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, better known by his nickname Farmajo, ran out in February.

Farmajo and the leaders of Somalia’s five semi-autonomous federal states had reached an agreement in September that paved the way for indirect parliamentary and presidential elections in late 2020 and early 2021.

But it fell apart as squabbles erupted over how to conduct the vote, and multiple rounds of talks have failed to break the impasse between Mogadishu and the states.

The bill adopted on Monday by 149 of the 275 MPs paves the way for a one-person, one-vote election in 2023 — the first such direct poll since 1969.

The delayed February election was to follow a complex indirect system used in the past in which special delegates chosen by Somalia’s myriad clan elders pick lawmakers, who in turn choose the president.

 

‘Unconstitutional’ bill 

 

Farmajo said the bill was introduced after member states “sabotaged” previous efforts to hold an election.

“The government will play its role in implementing this law... which guides the country to holding direct elections as it returns to the Somali people their constitutional rights,” the president said in statement.

The move was condemned by several upper house senators.

Speaker Abdi Hashi Abdullahi said it would “lead the country into political instability, risks of insecurity and other unpredictable situations”.

Another senator, Ilyas Ali Hassan, said the move was “unconstitutional” as its mandate had expired.

“And even if they had a mandate, there is no way the lower house alone can introduce an election law without the endorsement of the upper house so the whole thing is nonsense.”

He suspects the bill will bypass the senate, and it is unclear what the next step will be.

Adding to the drama of the day, Mogadishu police chief Sadaq Omar Hassan was promptly fired after releasing a video message announcing he was suspending parliament.

“There should be political agreement over issues and there should not be stealing. We call on the legislators to go back to their constituencies and seek confidence for reelection,” he said.

 

Against international community 

 

Farmajo’s bid to extend his mandate goes against the calls of the international community, which has urged immediate elections be held.

A joint statement from the European Union, African Union, United Nations and regional IGAD bloc, issued on Saturday, insisted that the September deal “remains the most viable path towards the holding of elections in the shortest delay possible”.

The statement said the groups would not “support any parallel process, partial elections, or new initiatives leading to any extension of prior mandates”.

In February opposition leaders, who have declared they no longer recognise Farmajo as president, attempted to hold a protest march, which led to an exchange of gunfire in the capital.

Somalia has not had an effective central government since the collapse of Siad Barre’s military regime in 1991, which led to decades of civil war and lawlessness fuelled by clan conflicts.

The country also still battles the Al Qaeda-linked Al Shabaab Islamist militant group which controlled the capital until 2011 when it was pushed out by African Union troops.

Al Shabaab retains parts of the countryside and carries out attacks against government, military and civilian targets in Mogadishu and regional towns.

Somalia still operates under an interim constitution and its institutions, such as the army, remain rudimentary, backed up with international support.

 

Iran atomic agency says nuclear facility hit by act of 'terrorism'

No-one was injured and there was no radioactive release

By - Apr 12,2021 - Last updated at Apr 12,2021

Iranians walk past closed shops in the capital Tehran, on Sunday, following the tightening of restrictions to curb the surge of COVID-19 cases (AFP photo)

TEHRAN — Iran's atomic energy organisation said on Sunday the Natanz nuclear facility was hit by a terrorist act, hours after it said an "accident" had caused a power failure there.

The episode came a day after the Islamic republic said it had started up advanced uranium enrichment centrifuges at the site, in a breach of its commitments under a troubled 2015 deal with world powers.

Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of the Iran Atomic Energy Organisation (IAEO), condemned a "futile" act, while urging the international community to "confront this anti-nuclear terrorism", in a statement carried by state television.

The attack was carried out by "opponents of the country's industrial and political progress, who aim to prevent development of a thriving nuclear industry", he said, without specifying what country or entity might be behind the alleged sabotage.

IAEO spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi had earlier reported an accident at the enrichment facility caused by a "power failure". No-one was injured and there was no radioactive release, the official Fars news agency reported, citing the spokesman.

Kamalvandi said there had been "an accident in part of the electrical circuit of the enrichment facility" at the Natanz complex near Tehran.

"The causes of the accident are under investigation and more details will be released later," he added, before the later statement put out by the agency's chief.

He did not say whether power was cut only in the enrichment facility or across other installations at the site.

Malek Chariati, spokesman for the Iranian parliament's energy commission, took to Twitter to allege sabotage.

"This incident, coming [the day after] National Nuclear Technology Day, as Iran endeavours to press the West into lifting sanctions, is strongly suspected to be sabotage or infiltration," Chariati said.

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani had on Saturday inaugurated a cascade of centrifuges for enriching uranium and two test cascades at Natanz, in a ceremony broadcast by state television.

An Israeli public broadcast journalist, Amichai Stein, said on Twitter “the assessment is that the fault” at Natanz is the “result of an Israeli cyber operation”, without elaborating or providing evidence to corroborate his claim.

 

‘Terrorist sabotage’

 

Iran’s president had on Saturday also inaugurated a replacement factory at Natanz, after an explosion at a facility making advanced centrifuges there last July.

Iranian authorities likewise blamed the July incident on “sabotage” by “terrorists”, but have not released the results of their investigation into it.

The equipment inaugurated on Saturday enables quicker enrichment of uranium and in higher quantities, to levels that violate Iran’s commitments under the 2015 nuclear deal it agreed with the five permanent United Nations Security Council powers, plus Germany.

The administration of then-US president Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from this multilateral nuclear accord in 2018 and reimposed biting sanctions on Iran.

Iran later responded by progressively rolling back its own commitments under the agreement.

Trump’s successor Joe Biden has said he is prepared to return to the deal, arguing it had — until Washington’s withdrawal — been successful in dramatically scaling back Iran’s nuclear activities.

Iran’s latest move to step up uranium enrichment follows an opening round of talks in Vienna Tuesday with representatives of the remaining parties to the nuclear deal on bringing the US back into it.

The Vienna talks are focused not only on lifting the crippling economic sanctions Trump reimposed, but also on bringing Iran back into compliance.

Iran’s nemesis Israel has always been implacably opposed to the 2015 accord.

In November last year, Iran’s top nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was killed by machine gun fire while travelling on a highway outside Tehran.

Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards said a satellite-controlled gun with “artificial intelligence” was used in the attack, which Tehran blamed on Israel.

Uranium enrichment can produce the fuel for a nuclear reactor, or in highly extended form, the fissile core of an atomic warhead. It is one of the most sensitive nuclear activities carried out by Iran.

Rouhani had again underlined at Saturday’s ceremony that Tehran’s nuclear programme is solely for “peaceful” purposes.

70 dead as battle for Yemen's Marib rages on three fronts

By - Apr 12,2021 - Last updated at Apr 12,2021

Fighters with forces loyal to Yemen's Saudi-backed government hold a position against Houthi rebels in Yemen's north-eastern province of Marib, on April 6 (AFP photo)

DUBAI — Fierce fighting for Yemen's strategic Marib city has killed 70 pro-government and Houthi rebel fighters over the past 24 hours, with battles raging on three fronts, loyalist military officials said on Sunday.

The Houthis have been trying to seize Marib, the capital of an oil-rich region and the government's last significant pocket of territory in the north, since February.

Two officials from pro-government forces told AFP that the rebels were mounting a concerted push that had left 26 loyalist soldiers dead as well as 44 from Houthi ranks. The rebels rarely disclose their losses.

The new toll adds to 53 killed on both sides in the previous 24 hours, according to loyalist military officials.

One of the officials said on Sunday that the rebels "are launching simultaneous attacks" in the areas of Kassara and Al Mashjah, northwest of the city, and Jabal Murad in the south.

"They have made progress on the Kassara and Al Mashjah fronts, but they have been thwarted on the Jabal Murad front," he told AFP.

The other official said that warplanes from the Saudi-led military coalition, which entered the Yemen conflict to support the government in 2015, launched airstrikes that "destroyed 12 Houthi military vehicles, including four tanks and a cannon".

However, the Saudi firepower does not seem to have halted the rebel offensive.

 

Fears for civilians

 

The Iran-backed Houthis in late 2014 overran the capital Sanaa, 120 kilometres to the west of Marib, along with much of northern Yemen.

The loss of Marib would be a heavy blow for the Yemeni government, currently based in the southern city of Aden, and for its Saudi backers.

It could also lead to humanitarian disaster, as vast numbers of civilians displaced from fighting elsewhere have sought refuge in Marib.

Around 140 sites have sprung up in the region to provide basic shelter for up to 2 million displaced, according to Yemen's government.

The rebels have stepped up missile and drone strikes against neighbouring Saudi Arabia in recent months, demanding the opening of Yemen’s airspace and ports. They have rejected a Saudi proposal for a ceasefire.

The United Nations last month condemned the escalation and warned of a looming humanitarian disaster.

The UN Security Council said the fighting “places one million internally displaced persons at grave risk and threatens efforts to secure a political settlement when the international community is increasingly united to end the conflict”.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has warned that the suffering will only end when a political solution is found between the Houthis and the internationally recognised government.

The conflict in Yemen has killed tens of thousands of people and pushed millions to the brink of famine, in what the the United Nations has described as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

Egypt train driver ‘not at controls’ during deadly crash

By - Apr 11,2021 - Last updated at Apr 11,2021

The March 26 crash killed at least 20 people and left 199 injured near Sohag in southern Egypt (AFP photo)

CAIRO — The driver of a speeding Egyptian train and his assistant had both left the driver’s cabin when it crashed into another train last month, the prosecution service alleged on Sunday.

The prosecutor also alleged that the assistant of the other train, which was stationary, and a track signalman were under the influence of the powerful painkiller tramadol, and that the former had also used cannabis.

At least 20 people died and 199 were injured in the March 26 crash near Sohag in southern Egypt, according to the authorities’ latest count which had already been revised several times.

Video images caught on a surveillance camera show the moving train hitting a stationary train at speed, sending one carriage hurtling into the air, in an immense cloud of dust.

According to an investigative report cited by the prosecutor on Sunday, the driver and his assistant “were not in the driver’s cabin” at the time of the crash, “contrary to their claims”.

President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi has vowed to hold to account those responsible for the latest of several deadly train accidents in recent years.

 

‘Human element’ 

 

Transport Minister Kamel El Wazir — a former general named to the post after a deadly 2019 train collision — has blamed the latest crash on human error.

“We have a problem with the human element,” he told a TV talk show, where he pledged to put in place an automated network by 2024.

At least eight people, including the driver of the moving train and his assistant, were arrested shortly after the crash in the village of Samaa Gharb, 460 kilometres south of Cairo.

One train was travelling between the southern city of Luxor and Alexandria on the Mediterranean coast, and the other was en route between the southern city of Aswan and Cairo.

After the disaster, a military conscript who was on the Cairo-bound train told AFP that the second train struck the one he was travelling on about 15 minutes after his had come to a stop.

Egyptian rail disasters are generally attributed to poor infrastructure and maintenance.

One of the country’s deadliest train crashes came in 2002, when 373 people died as a fire ripped through a crowded train south of Cairo.

The African Development Bank announced a loan of 145 million euros ($170 million) Tuesday to improve safety on Egypt’s rail network, following the latest disaster.

The bank said the money would be used “to enhance operational safety and to increase network capacity on national rail lines”.

“The planned upgrades are expected to benefit low-income Egyptians, about 40 per cent of the population, who rely on trains as an affordable mode of transport,” it said in a statement.

Lebanon civil war survivors say today’s crisis even worse

By - Apr 11,2021 - Last updated at Apr 11,2021

Civil war survivor Jean Saliba, is photographed on the balcony overlooking the port of Beirut, in the Karantina district of the Lebanese capital, on April 6 (AFP photo)

BEIRUT — During the civil war that ended over 30 years ago Abla Barotta survived shelling and clashes, but she now fears a “slow death” from Lebanon’s worst economic crisis in decades.

The 58-year-old mother of three is a survivor among the more than 50 per cent of Lebanese today living in poverty.

Echoing a common refrain on television and at public gatherings, Barotta said even the worst days of the war weren’t this tough.

“We used to hide in houses or basements every time we heard shelling during the war, but today, where can we go to hide from hunger, the economic crisis, the coronavirus pandemic and our political leaders?” she told AFP.

“We used to fear death from bombardment or sniper fire, but now we fear everything: Illness, poverty and hunger,” she said.

Her voice lowering to a whisper, she added: “To die from shelling is better, at least there is no suffering... while today, we suffer and die slowly every day.”

Lebanon on Tuesday marks 46 years since clashes erupted in Beirut between Lebanese Christians and Palestinians backed by leftist and Muslim factions, marking the start of a 15-year conflict that drew in regional powers Israel and Syria.

At the time, the country was divided into warring sectarian fiefdoms.

But many still managed to preserve a semblance of normal life between bouts of heightened violence and kidnappings.

The wheels of Lebanon’s economy kept turning, bolstered by money and weapons sent to warring parties from abroad.

 

‘Haven’t seen the state’ 

 

Corruption, negligence and bitter political divisions, however, have plagued Lebanon in the run-up to a financial slump now sounding the death knell for a fragile middle class.

Since 2019, the Lebanese pound has lost more than 85 per cent of its value against the dollar on the black market and prices have soared.

Customers have come to blows in supermarkets to secure fast-selling subsidised products, while shortages in pharmacies have made medicine shopping akin to hunting for treasure.

Despite the deterioration, authorities have done little to stem a crisis compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic and last year’s port blast that cost more than 200 lives and ravaged swathes of Beirut.

“The war was ugly... but we never lived through anything like this economic crisis,” Barotta said in her Beirut home that was hard hit by the August 4 explosion.

Her first floor flat in a heritage building in the Mar Mikhail neighbourhood adjacent to the port has since been renovated and her neck has healed from a blast injury.

But she said there is plenty left to worry about.

“This anxiety over whether we will be able to eat tomorrow... we have never lived that before,” she said.

In the blast-strewn Karantina district, also next to the port, Jean Saliba pointed to gutted buildings awaiting renovation and listed the names of families who lost loved ones in Lebanon’s worst peace-time disaster.

Karantina has since become a stomping ground for non-governmental groups spearheading the reconstruction effort.

“We haven’t seen the state,” said Saliba, a 63-year-old former civil servant.

“If it weren’t for the money and food handouts distributed by NGOs, people wouldn’t have had the strength to go on.”

 

‘Collective catastrophe’ 

 

Saliba called the monster blast a “collective catastrophe” that made the war-time suffering look like “a drop in the ocean”.

During the war, people could go back to work when bombardment slowed, he said.

But with current unemployment rates approaching 40 per cent, many don’t have jobs to return to.

“Who can earn money at all today?” the father of three asked. “Economically, we are finished.”

Elsewhere in the capital, Victor Abu Kheir sat idly inside his small barber shop in the Hamra neighbourhood.

“There are days when I only have one customer, or two at most,” the 77-year-old said, wearing an apron.

Since it opened in 1965, the shop’s decor has remained unchanged, its black leather armchair and glass cabinets harking back to a brighter past.

The civil war days, Abu Kheir said, were more “merciful” than those of today’s crisis, even if he was briefly kidnapped and survived gunfire hitting his shop.

“No one prefers war, but those days were better,” he said, adding that he only ever lowered his blinds when bombardment spiked.

“There was money and the people were comfortable.”

 

Libyan PM, ministers due in Turkey on Monday — ministry

By - Apr 11,2021 - Last updated at Apr 11,2021

Members of Libyan special forces, trained by the Turkish military, demonstrate their skills during a graduation ceremony in the coastal city Al Khums, about 120km east of the capital Tripoli, on Thursday (AFP photo)

ANKARA — A large Libyan government delegation led by Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah will travel on Monday to Turkey, a country playing a key role in the North African nation, Turkey’s foreign ministry said.

Dbeibah will be joined by 14 ministers and the head of the armed forces, a ministry official told AFP on Sunday, with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan due to receive the delegation at the presidential palace in Ankara.

Analysts say the size of the delegation is an indication of the importance placed by Tripoli on its relations with Ankara, which has troops deployed in Libya under a deal with a new unity government led by Dbeibah.

Turkish state news agency Anadolu said officials from the two sides were expected to discuss boosting bilateral ties as well as treaties signed between Libya and Turkey.

A first meeting of the two countries’ Strategic Cooperation Council, set up by Ankara, will also take place during the visit, the Turkish presidency said.

The presence of Turkish troops in Libya has angered some Western countries, with the interim US ambassador to the UN calling in January for them to withdraw immediately, along with Russian forces.

Dbeibah was selected earlier this year through a UN-backed inter-Libyan dialogue to lead the country to national elections set for December 2021.

His government replaces two rival administrations based in Tripoli and the country’s east, the latter loyal to military strongman Khalifa Haftar, whose forces tried but failed to seize the capital in a 2019-20 offensive.

The rival Libyan authorities have given their backing to the new administration, adding to tentative hopes that the country can exit a decade of crisis.

It has been mired in chaos since dictator Muammar Qadhafi was deposed and killed in a 2011 NATO-backed uprising.

Russia was one of several powers backing Haftar in his offensive against Tripoli, while Turkish support to the last administration in the capital helped beat back the strongman’s advance.

 

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