BEIRUT: Civil society organizations and lawmakers in crisis-hit Lebanon have raised concerns over the awarding of a multi-million dollar contract to build and operate a second terminal at Beirut’s international airport.
Cash-strapped Lebanon announced last week that private company Lebanese Air Transport and Irish firm daa International would partner for the revamp.
Public Works and Transportation Minister Ali Hamieh said the private sector would fund the $122 million project, which would “create around 2,500 jobs.”
The firms would operate the terminal for a 25-year period, he added.
But civil society groups and some lawmakers have decried opacity in the tender process and a lack of involvement of the Public Procurement Authority.
“Marginalizing or disregarding” the role of the authority undermines the effectiveness of Lebanon’s 2021 public procurement law, 10 civil society groups said in a statement Tuesday.
Last week the groups, including Transparency International Lebanon, warned in a statement of “serious abuses” in the procurement law’s application which “open the door to corruption and nepotism.”
Jean Ellieh, head of the authority, confirmed to AFP on Wednesday that “the contract did not pass through” the regulatory body as it should have according to the 2021 law.
Some have also questioned how a caretaker government with limited powers could announce such a major infrastructure project, in a country where entrenched political barons are accused of systemic corruption.
Lawmaker Mark Daou argued on Twitter that awarding the contract went beyond the caretaker government’s prerogatives. Other MPs have also raised concerns.
The Court of Audit is expected to rule on the contract’s legality following the outcry.
In late 2019, Lebanon plunged into an economic crisis that the World Bank has dubbed one of the planet’s worst in modern times.
Amid persistent political deadlock, the country has been without a president for almost five months, while the government has operated in a caretaker capacity since May last year.
The economic meltdown has pushed most of the population into poverty while the political elite, widely blamed for the country’s financial collapse, has failed to take action.
A visiting International Monetary Fund delegation said last week that Lebanon was “at a very dangerous moment,” criticizing slow progress on reforms needed to unlock billions in emergency loans.
In a statement, the IMF noted that Lebanon’s 2021 procurement law “should be implemented promptly.”
The new airport terminal, set to cater to low-cost carriers and charter flights, is expected to be able to receive around 3.5 million passengers a year, according to public works minister Hamieh.
Work is expected to start next year, with the terminal set to become operational by March 2027, according to daa International.
Lebanon airport expansion sparks transparency concerns
https://arab.news/jy794
Lebanon airport expansion sparks transparency concerns
- Public Works and Transportation Minister Ali Hamieh said the private sector would fund the $122 million project, which would "create around 2,500 jobs"
- Civil society groups and some lawmakers have decried opacity in the tender process and a lack of involvement of the Public Procurement Authority
Israel plans large camp for Palestinians in southern Gaza, retired general says
- Avivi said the camp would be used to house Palestinians who wish to leave Gaza and cross into Egypt as well as those who wish to stay
JERUSALEM, Jan 27 : Israel has cleared land in southern Gaza for the construction of a camp for Palestinians potentially equipped with surveillance and facial recognition technology at its entrance, a retired Israeli general who advises the military said on Tuesday.
Retired reservist Brig.-General Amir Avivi told Reuters in an interview that the camp would be built in an area of Rafah cleared of tunnels built by Hamas, with entry and exit tracked by Israeli personnel.
Avivi is founder of the influential Israel Defense and Security Forum, a group representing thousands of Israeli military reservists. He does not speak on behalf of Israel’s military, which declined to comment. The Israeli prime minister’s office did not immediately provide comment on any plans to build a camp in Rafah.
Avivi said the camp would be used to house Palestinians who wish to leave Gaza and cross into Egypt as well as those who wish to stay.
His comments come as Israel prepares for a “limited reopening” of Gaza’s Rafah border crossing with Egypt, a key requirement under US President Donald Trump’s plan to end the Gaza war.
Sources told Reuters this month that Israel wants to ensure more Palestinians leave Gaza than are allowed in. Israeli officials have spoken in the past about encouraging Gazans to emigrate, though they deny intending to transfer the population out by force — a highly sensitive issue for Palestinians.
“There are no Gazans, almost at all, in Rafah,” Avivi said. The area fell under complete Israeli military control following an October Israel-Hamas ceasefire, and most Palestinians fled for areas held by Hamas.
“You need to build infrastructure in Rafah that can host them, and then they can choose if they want to go or not,” Avivi said. He said the structure would likely be “a big, organized camp” capable of hosting hundreds of thousands of people that could enforce ID checks including facial recognition.
In July, Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz told Israeli media that he had ordered troops to prepare a camp in Rafah to house Gaza’s population. Officials have not spoken publicly about such plans since then.
Ismail Al-Thawabta, head of the Hamas-run Gaza government media office, told Reuters in a statement that the idea amounted to cover for “forced displacement.”
POTENTIAL RETURN TO WAR
Palestinians in Gaza, shattered by two years of Israeli attacks in the enclave, have long faced restrictions on their movement and monitoring of their online activity and phone calls by Israeli surveillance agencies.
Nearly all of Gaza’s 2 million people have been forced into a narrow coastal strip from which Israeli forces withdrew under the ceasefire and where Hamas has retained control.
Trump’s plan for Gaza, now in its second phase, calls for Gaza’s reconstruction to start in Rafah and for Hamas to lay down its arms in exchange for further Israeli troop withdrawals from the territory.
Avivi said Israel’s military was preparing for a new offensive against Hamas if it refuses to give up its weapons. This could include relaunching attacks on Gaza City, the enclave’s largest.
The camp in Gaza could be used to house Palestinians fleeing a renewed Israeli assault, Avivi said.
“Plans are set. The army is ready to get the command from the government, from the cabinet to renew its maneuvers in Gaza,” Avivi said.
Israel’s military says it has continued to carry out operations in Gaza since the ceasefire to thwart what it describes as planned attacks by militants and destroy Hamas’ tunnel network under Gaza.
Israeli attacks since the ceasefire have killed more than 480 Palestinians in Gaza, health authorities there say, while the military says four soldiers have been killed in militant attacks.
Avi Dichter, a minister in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet and former head of Israel’s domestic intelligence service, said disputes over disarmament could lead Israel back into war in Gaza.
“We have to get prepared for the war in Gaza,” Dichter told Reuters, adding that the disarmament issue “will have to be solved by Israeli troops, the hard way.”
DEMILITARIZATION GOAL
Hamas has publicly refused to lay down its weapons. Two Hamas officials told Reuters this week that neither Washington nor the mediators had presented the group with any detailed or concrete disarmament proposal.
According to a document shared by the White House last week, the Trump administration wants to see heavy weapons decommissioned immediately, with “personal arms registered and decommissioned by sector” as the police under an interim technocratic administration in Gaza “become capable of guaranteeing personal security.”
Trump has repeatedly warned Hamas that it would have “hell to pay” if it does not lay down its weapons.
A US official said on Tuesday that disarmament could come along with some sort of amnesty for Hamas members.
Speaking to Israel’s parliament on Monday night, Netanyahu said the next phase of the ceasefire would not include reconstruction of Gaza.
“The next phase is demilitarization of the Strip and disarming Hamas,” Netanyahu said.
