Qatar’s offer to build 3 power plants to ease Lebanon’s electricity crisis is blocked
Cost and space issues in urban areas have also limited solar use
People currently get an average of four hours of electricity a day from the state company
Updated 30 May 2024
AP
BEIRUT: Lebanon’s political class, fuel companies and private electricity providers blocked an offer by Qatar to build three renewable energy power plants to ease the crisis-hit nation’s decades-old electricity crisis, Lebanese caretaker economy minister said Thursday.
Lebanon’s electricity crisis worsened after the country’s historic economic meltdown began in October 2019. Power cuts often last for much of the day, leaving many reliant on expensive private generators that work on diesel and raise pollution levels.
Although many people have installed solar power systems in their homes over the past three years, most use it only to fill in when the generator is off. Cost and space issues in urban areas have also limited solar use.
Qatar offered in 2023 to build three power plants with a capacity of 450 megawatts — or about 25 percent of the small nation’s needs — and since then, Doha didn’t receive a response from Lebanon, caretaker Economy Minister Amin Salam said.
Lebanon’s energy minister, Walid Fayyad, responded in a news conference held shortly afterward that Qatar only offered to build one power plant with a capacity of 100 megawatts that would be a joint venture between the private and public sectors and not a gift as “some claim.”
Salam said that after Qatar got no response from Lebanon regarding their offer, Doha offered to start with a 100-megawatt plant.
Lebanon’s political class that has been running the country since the end of 1975-90 civil war is largely blamed for the widespread corruption and mismanagement that led to the country’s worst economic crisis in its modern history. Five years after the crisis began, Lebanon’s government hasn’t implemented a staff-level agreement reached with the International Monetary Fund in 2022 and has resisted any reforms in electricity, among other sectors.
People currently get an average of four hours of electricity a day from the state company, which has cost state coffers more than $40 billion over the past three decades because of its chronic budget shortfalls.
“There is a country in darkness that we want to turn its lights on,” Salam told reporters in Beirut, saying that during his last trip to Qatar in April, officials in the gas-rich nation asked him about the offer they put forward in January 2023.
“The Qatari leadership is offering to help Lebanon, so we have to respond to that offer and give results,” Salam said. Had the political leadership been serious in easing the electricity crisis, he said, they would have called for emergency government and parliamentary sessions to approve it.
He blamed “cartels and Mafia” that include fuel companies and 7,200 private generators that are making huge profits because of the electricity crisis.
“We don’t want to breathe poison anymore. We are inhaling poison every day,” Salam said.
“Political bickering is blocking everything in the country,” Salam said referring to lack of reforms as well as unsuccessful attempts to elect a president since the term of President Michel Aoun’s term ended in October 2022.
Lebanon hasn’t built a new power plant in decades. Multiple plans for new ones have run aground on politicians’ factionalism and conflicting patronage interests. The country’s few aging, heavy-fuel oil plants long ago became unable to meet demand.
With Hezbollah’s influence eroded, can Lebanon forge a brighter future?
Country is braced for a hopeful era with a new government in place and the Iran-backed group marginalized
Beirut working with Riyadh to resume trade and rebuild trust as President Aoun’s visit revitalizes relations
Updated 10 sec ago
Nadia Alfaour
DUBAI: For the first time since its creation in 1982, Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah militia has seen its political and military clout diminished after a devastating war with Israel gutted its leadership, emptied its coffers, and depleted its once formidable arsenal.
Despite the grand funeral of its slain leader, Hassan Nasrallah, attended by thousands of mourners at Beirut’s Camille Chamoun Stadium on Feb. 23 to project an image of resilience and strength, the group’s influence over Lebanon and the wider region is undoubtedly on the wane.
“The Lebanese are certainly ready for a new period in the country where the state has a monopoly over weapons,” Michael Young, a senior editor at the Beirut-based Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center, told Arab News.
“As for Hezbollah, it is not going to disappear, on the contrary, it is still around. The big question is whether it can transform itself or not.”
Mourners walk during the funeral procession with the vehicle carrying the coffins of Hezbollah's slain leaders Hassan Nasrallah and Hashem Safieddine from the Camille Chamoun Sports City Stadium towards the burial place on the outskirts of Beirut on February 23, 2025. (AFP/File)
The fall of the Bashar Assad regime in neighboring Syria — once a critical supply line for weapons from Iran — has compounded Hezbollah’s woes, leaving it isolated, unable to rearm, and increasingly powerless to dictate Lebanese affairs.
Hezbollah is reportedly facing a financial crisis, leaving it scrambling to provide monetary support to the families of its injured members and to finance reconstruction work in its southern and eastern strongholds devastated by Israeli bombardment.
“Some Hezbollah supporters have embraced the change while others are still screaming,” a waiter at one of the cafes along Beirut’s Hamra Street who did not wanted to be identified told Arab News.
“If we have to drag them into this new era kicking and screaming, then we will. It has been about them for so many decades. They left the country broken and darkened. It’s time to move on.”
People sit outside a cafe along Beirut's Hamra street on June 20, 2024. (AFP/File)
Many Lebanese have warmly welcomed the end of Iranian hegemony and the crippling of its biggest proxy in the Middle East. The election of former army chief Joseph Aoun as president and ICJ judge Nawaf Salam as prime minister in January is emblematic of this shift.
Backed by the US, France, and Saudi Arabia, Aoun’s election by Lebanese lawmakers is the clearest indication yet that Iran’s influence in Lebanon is spent, opening the way to reforms and international support to help pull the nation out of the mire.
Aoun’s recent visit to Saudi Arabia — the first by a Lebanese leader in eight years — has been regarded as a positive step in resetting ties between the two countries.
During the visit, Prime Minister and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman promised to reactivate a $3 billion funding package for the Lebanese army, and a released joint statement declared both sides are looking into ways to allow Saudi citizens to visit Lebanon again.
Both countries are also looking into the resumption of Lebanese imports into the Kingdom, which had been halted due to the smuggling of millions of amphetamine and Captagon pills into the Arab Gulf states via Lebanon, often hidden in regular cargo.
To be sure, not everyone in Lebanon is pleased with the dramatic political shift taking place. Hezbollah supporters have been left reeling since the loss of their charismatic leader and the forced acceptance of the US-brokered ceasefire with Israel, which has been interpreted as a major blow to the “Axis of Resistance” of Iran-backed proxies throughout the region.
“The Shiite community in Lebanon had their golden days under Nasrallah, and now it’s a new phase where they’re mourning the golden days,” Hanin Ghaddar, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute, said in an interview with an Israeli TV channel.
IN NUMBERS
• Real GDP (PPP): $65.8 billion
• Total population: 5.36 million
• Public debt: 146.8% of GDP
• Total refugees: 1.27 million+
Source: The World Factbook (CIA)
Ghaddar, who is originally from southern Lebanon, said that Hezbollah called for a mass demonstration in downtown Beirut on March 8, 2005, to “ascertain that they’re taking over, inheriting the Syrian army and taking over the Lebanese institutions.”
The war between Israel and the Lebanese militia began on Oct. 8, 2023, when fighters in south Lebanon began firing rockets into northern Israel in solidarity with the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which a day earlier had attacked southern Israel, triggering the war in Gaza.
What began as a tit-for-tat exchange of fire along the Israel-Lebanon border suddenly escalated in September 2024 when Israel intensified its aerial bombardment of Hezbollah positions, attacked its communications networks, and mounted a ground offensive.
On Sept. 17-18, thousands of pagers and hundreds of walkie-talkies in the possession of Hezbollah members suddenly exploded in synchronized waves after being sabotaged by Israel. The attack killed 42 and injured 3,500, crippling the militia’s communications.
According to one of Nasrallah’s sons, Jawad, his father was left spiritually broken by the pager and walkie-talkie attack and the death of Fuad Shukr, a senior commander and long-time Hezbollah member, in an Israeli strike.
In an interview with Lebanese television network Al-Manar, Jawad described his father as “spiritless and sad” after these blows.
“You could see that he was hurt,” he said. “There were times I could not bear to hear his voice when he was in that state. You listen to him trying to seek encouragement, but once you hear his voice, it hurts your heart. Later, I learned that he was crying.”
On Sept. 27, 2024, Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli airstrike on an underground Hezbollah headquarters in Beirut’s Dahiyeh suburb. The attack, carried out by Israeli F-15I fighter jets, involved more than 80 bombs, destroying the bunker and nearby buildings.
A flag bearing a portrait of slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah is displayed during the funeral on February 28, 2025 of 95 Hezbollah fighters and civilians killed in Israeli airstrikes during hostilities that lasted more than a year between Israel and Hezbollah, in the southern Lebanese border town of Aitaroun. (AFP)
The Israel military confirmed Nasrallah’s death on Sept. 28, and his body was recovered the following day. The strike resulted in at least 33 deaths and nearly 200 injuries, including civilians.
As the conflict threatened to drag the US and Iran into direct confrontation, with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Israel trading missile strikes, the international community acted to secure a ceasefire in November 2024, which has by and large held.
Hezbollah’s battering by Israel has left it politically enfeebled, allowing independent lawmakers and parties not affiliated with the militia to establish a new government after more than two years of political deadlock.
“Up to now there are no signs that the party is going through a reassessment of its previous strategy, although some say within the party such discussions are taking place,” Carnegie Middle East Center’s Young told Arab News.
“Given the hardening of the Iranian position recently, with Supreme Leader of Iran Ayatollah Ali Khamenei saying there can be no negotiations with America, I am not sure that is correct.”
Lebanon remains in the midst of a devastating economic crisis, with the local currency having lost more than 90 percent of its value since 2019 and up to 80 percent of the population living in poverty — at least 40 percent of them in extreme poverty.
Unemployment rates have skyrocketed and banks continue to impose strict controls on withdrawals and transfers. Meanwhile, the World Bank estimates it will cost $8.5 billion to repair the damage of the Israel-Hezbollah conflict.
A woman walks past the rubble of a building that was destroyed by previous Israeli bombardment in the village of Yaroun in south Lebanon near the border with Israel on June 21, 2024. (AFP file)
For the thousands of Lebanese who were forced to flee their homes in the south under Israel’s bombardment, the mere suggestion that Hezbollah was somehow victorious in the conflict, as some hardline supporters like to claim, is utterly delusional.
“If my parents return to their village, when should we expect them to be expelled again?” Ali, a university student who now lives with his parents in a cramped Beirut apartment and did not want to give his full name, told Arab News.
“How many more times? We are caught in the crossfire, doomed to be a football between Hezbollah and Israel.
“We are tired of being kicked around. It is shameful. Then you get a deluded supporter who tells you we’ve won. What did we win?”
A vehicle drives past buildings destroyed in Israeli strikes during the latest war, near the border wall in the southern Lebanese village of Ramia. (AFP)
The international community and Arab donors have so far refused to release any aid funds until UN Security Council Resolution 1701 is fully implemented, which calls for the disarmament and disbanding of all armed groups in the country except for the Lebanese army.
After several years of political gridlock and a power vacuum once filled by Hezbollah and the Amal bloc led by Nabih Berri, Lebanon is now in a unique position to stabilize and integrate itself once again into the Arab fold.
President Aoun’s remarks during the Arab League summit in Cairo on March 4 reflect his apparent determination to set Lebanon on this new course, with some describing his speech as “resistance through diplomacy.”
The Washington Institute’s Ghaddar believes that while the current phase may not be “the end of Hezbollah for the (Lebanese Shiite) community,” the lack of money, jobs, services, and reconstruction has led people to seek alternatives.
“It’s very clear that Hezbollah is no longer an option for them,” she said in the interview with the Israeli TV channel.
Today, “Hezbollah is a new entity, which cannot provide, cannot protect, obviously cannot preserve, and cannot rebuild.”
Some 200 detained after Istanbul Women’s Day march: organizers
Although the march ended without incident, organizers said police then started rounding up a number of protesters
“The police started to detain our friends in an act of provocation,” the march organizers wrote on X
Updated 30 min 39 sec ago
AFP
ISTANBUL: Police detained some 200 demonstrators in Istanbul late on Saturday after more than 3,000 women marched peacefully through the city center under tight security to mark International Women’s Day, organizers said.
For years protests have been banned in the city’s central Taksim Square, which is habitually fenced off with barriers, but the authorities have in recent years tolerated rallies nearby albeit under a heavy security presence.
The Feminist Night March rally began at sunset near Taksim Square, with many demonstrators wearing purple and waving banners with slogans including “We won’t be silenced, we’re not afraid and we won’t obey” and “Long live our feminist struggle.”
Although the march ended without incident, organizers said police then started rounding up a number of protesters, posting footage showing officers roughly dragging several demonstrators out of the crowd.
“After the #FeministNightMarch finished and the crowd dispersed without incident, the police started to detain our friends in an act of provocation,” the march organizers wrote on X.
“Nearly 200 women were unjustly detained on March 8!” they added.
There was no immediate comment from the authorities.
Earlier, several hundred demonstrators had gathered for a protest in the Kadikoy neighborhood on the Asian side of the city, also waving banners as they marched through the streets.
“With our demand for an end to violence against women, for the ratification of the Istanbul Convention against femicide... and for social policies that don’t place the burden of care on women, we are pursuing our March 8 struggle for democracy, equality, peace and fraternity,” Arzu Cerkezoglu, chairwoman of the DISK trade union, told AFP.
She was referring to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s 2021 decision to pull Turkiye out of the Istanbul Convention, which requires countries to set up laws aimed at preventing and prosecuting violence against women.
Turkiye does not collate official figures on femicides, leaving the job to women’s organizations which collect data on murders and other suspicious deaths from press reports.
According to figures gathered by the We Will Stop Femicide Platform rights organization, at least 1,318 women have been killed by men since Turkiye withdrew from the convention in March 2021.
Hamas sees ‘positive’ signs for start of phase two Gaza truce talks
Israel says it is sending a delegation to talks in Doha on Monday
Palestinian militant group meets with mediators in Cairo
Updated 34 min 40 sec ago
AFP
CAIRO: Hamas said on Saturday that there were “positive” signs regarding the start of negotiations for the second phase of the fragile Gaza ceasefire, as a delegation from the Palestinian militant group met with mediators in Cairo.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Israel would send a delegation to Doha on Monday for truce talks.
Hamas spokesperson Abdel Latif Al-Qanoua said in a statement that “efforts of the Egyptian and Qatari mediators are ongoing to complete the implementation of the ceasefire agreement.”
“The indicators are positive regarding the start of negotiations for the second phase,” he added, without providing further details.
In a statement, Netanyahu’s office said that Israel had accepted an invitation from US-backed mediators and would “send a delegation to Doha on Monday in an effort to advance the negotiations.”
The first phase of the Gaza ceasefire ended on March 1 after six weeks of relative calm that included exchanges of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners, though widespread hostilities have not resumed.
While Israel has said it wants to extend the first phase until mid-April, Hamas has insisted on a transition to the second phase, which should lead to a permanent end to the war.
On Saturday, a high-level Hamas delegation held talks with Egyptian officials over the second phase of the ceasefire. The truce has largely halted more than 15 months of fighting in Gaza.
In the statement, Al-Qanoua spoke of the “necessity of obligating the mediators to ensure Israel implements the agreement,” adding that: “Hamas affirms its readiness to begin negotiations for the second phase to meet the demands of our Palestinian people.”
Under the first phase, Gaza militants handed over 25 living hostages and eight bodies in exchange for the release of about 1,800 Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.
Of the 251 captives taken during Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that triggered the war, 58 remain in the Palestinian territory, including 34 the Israeli military has confirmed are dead.
France condemns Syria violence targeting ‘civilians’
A French foreign ministry statement called on Syria’s new authorities to ensure independent investigations
Updated 08 March 2025
AFP
PARIS: France on Saturday condemned violence in the Syrian Arab Republic targeting “civilians because of their faith, and prisoners,” as a war monitor said more than 500 Alawites have been killed in recent days.
A French foreign ministry statement called on Syria’s new authorities “to ensure that independent investigations can shed light on these crimes, and that the perpetrators are sentenced.”
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights on Saturday reported that 532 Alawite civilians were killed in Syria “by security forces and allied groups.”
The Alawites are a religious minority to which toppled president Bashar Assad belongs.
The wave of violence targeting them follows a rebel coalition led by Islamist group Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) seizing power in December. After its victory, HTS had vowed to protect Syria’s religious and ethnic minorities.
The chair of the UN commission, Yasmin Sooka, said South Sudan was “witnessing an alarming regression that could erase years of hard-won progress“
“Rather than fueling division and conflict, leaders must urgently refocus on the peace process”
Updated 08 March 2025
AFP
NAIROBI: South Sudan is in “alarming regression” as clashes in recent weeks in the northeast threaten to undo years of progress toward peace, the UN commission on human rights in the country warned on Saturday.
A fragile power-sharing agreement between President Salva Kiir and First Vice President Riek Machar has been put in peril by the clashes between their allied forces in the country’s Upper Nile State.
On Friday, a UN helicopter attempting to rescue soldiers in the state was attacked, killing one crew member and wounding two others.
An army general was also killed in the failed rescue mission, the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) said Friday.
The incident sent shudders through the young and impoverished nation, long plagued by political instability and violence.
Kiir late Friday urged calm and pledged no return to war.
In a statement on Saturday, the chair of the UN commission, Yasmin Sooka, said South Sudan was “witnessing an alarming regression that could erase years of hard-won progress.”
“Rather than fueling division and conflict, leaders must urgently refocus on the peace process, uphold the human rights of South Sudanese citizens, and ensure a smooth transition to democracy,” she said.
South Sudan, the world’s youngest country, ended a five-year civil war in 2018 with the power-sharing agreement between bitter rivals Kiir and Machar.
But Kiir’s allies have accused Machar’s forces of fomenting unrest in Nasir County, in Upper Nile State, in league with the so-called White Army, a loose band of armed youths in the region from the same ethnic Nuer community as the vice president.
“What we are witnessing now is a return to the reckless power struggles that have devastated the country in the past,” commissioner Barney Afako said in the UN Commission statement.
He added that the South Sudanese had endured “atrocities, rights violations which amount to serious crimes, economic mismanagement, and ever worsening security.”
“They deserve respite and peace, not another cycle of war.”
