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Foreign Firms Vie to Rebuild Beirut Port

A view shows the grain silo that was damaged during Beirut port explosion, in Beirut, Lebanon February 4, 2021. REUTERS
A view shows the grain silo that was damaged during Beirut port explosion, in Beirut, Lebanon February 4, 2021. REUTERS
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Foreign Firms Vie to Rebuild Beirut Port

A view shows the grain silo that was damaged during Beirut port explosion, in Beirut, Lebanon February 4, 2021. REUTERS
A view shows the grain silo that was damaged during Beirut port explosion, in Beirut, Lebanon February 4, 2021. REUTERS

Eight months after a massive blast ripped through Beirut port and nearby districts of the Lebanese capital, a host of foreign companies with different national interests are competing to rebuild it.

"Everyone has their eyes on the port: The Russians, the Chinese, the Turks, the French and now the Germans," interim port director Bassem al-Kaissi said.

"But for the moment these are only declarations of intent,” AFP quoted him as saying.

The August 4 explosion of hundreds of tons of ill-stored fertilizers devastated the dockside and large swathes of the capital, killing more than 200 people.

A German delegation last Friday unveiled a spectacular $30-billion project to rebuild the port and adjacent areas, in the presence of their ambassador.

The ambitious plan, drawn up by companies including Hamburg Port Consulting, seeks to move the port east, and remodel the nearby area to include social housing, a "central park" and even beaches.
France has also been positioning itself to take on the port's reconstruction.

When French President Emmanuel Macron made a second visit to Beirut in September after the monster explosion, the Lebanese-born head of French shipping giant CMA-CGM, Rodolphe Saade, was in his delegation.

During the trip, his company presented Lebanon with a three-phase project to rebuild, expand and modernize the seaside location to become a "smart port", its regional director Joe Dakkak told AFP.

The first two phases would cost between $400 million to $600 million and the firm would fund half, while around 50 companies and international organizations had also shown interest in participating, he said.

CMA-CGM has already obtained a concession to run the container terminal in Lebanon's second city Tripoli until 2041, and hopes to soon win a bid for container operations in Beirut.

Beyond the commercial interests, political analyst Imad Salamey says geopolitical influence is also at play.

The appeal includes ongoing "offshore gas exploration in the Mediterranean", "Russian expansionism" in the region, and "future economic collaboration between Israel and Arab countries" in the wake of several normalization accords, he said.

In 2018, Lebanon signed its first contract for offshore oil and gas drilling in two blocks with a consortium comprising French, Italian and Russian energy giants, Total, ENI and Novatek, respectively.

And further north, Damascus ally Russia has started drilling off the coast of war-torn Syria, Salamey said.

The port is likely small fry for China, Salamey said.

But it could attract the Chinese "to strengthen their alliance with the Iranians", who hold sway in Syria and Lebanon, where it sponsors Hezbollah.

The former US envoy for Near Eastern affairs, David Schenker, has warned against China winning the bid.

"Beijing's aversion to transparency and its ambivalence toward Hezbollah would make a Chinese role in reconstruction a worst-case outcome," he wrote.

He said Washington should work closely with whichever country wins the port bid to ensure the project is "bound to the principle of reform".

The international community is insisting on sweeping reforms, including at the port, before pumping in foreign aid to rescue the country from its worst economic crisis in decades.

But for eight months, deeply divided politicians have failed to agree on a new cabinet to launch them.

Despite this, Kaissi said port authorities were working on an action plan to reconstruct and revamp the facility, to be submitted to any new government.

There is an obstacle to the German proposal.

Lebanese activists fear its plan for a park and beaches could spell a repeat of the Beirut center’s post-war transformation.

The neighborhood was once a historic and vibrant commercial center where people of all social and religious backgrounds mixed.

But Lebanese company Solidere privatized downtown Beirut, converting it into grandiose real estate unaffordable to the average Lebanese.

"We will not accept a new Solidere with a foreign touch," civil society group Nahnoo has said.

Economist Jad Chaaban said that any project as huge as the port would require "national consultation".

"Foreign companies alone should not decide. Neither should the Lebanese state."

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Arab World

Israel Tracks Hezbollah’s Cash Vaults from Damascus to Dahiyeh and Sidon

Hezbollah members are seen during a military exercise held by the group in southern Lebanon in May 2023.File photo – AP
Hezbollah members are seen during a military exercise held by the group in southern Lebanon in May 2023.File photo – AP
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Israel Tracks Hezbollah’s Cash Vaults from Damascus to Dahiyeh and Sidon

Hezbollah members are seen during a military exercise held by the group in southern Lebanon in May 2023.File photo – AP
Hezbollah members are seen during a military exercise held by the group in southern Lebanon in May 2023.File photo – AP

Israel is expanding its campaign to dismantle Hezbollah’s financial infrastructure, targeting suspected cash storage sites from the Syrian capital Damascus to the Beirut southern suburb of Dahiyeh and the coastal city of Sidon.

Israel’s rare announcement this week of a strike targeting a Lebanese money changer it accused of transferring funds to Hezbollah marks a sharp escalation in its efforts to dismantle the group’s financial networks, a campaign that first surfaced in Syria in 2020 and intensified during its latest military offensive in Lebanon.

On Tuesday, Israel said it had struck Haitham Bakri, a money changer in southern Lebanon, claiming he had facilitated financial transactions for Hezbollah. The move comes amid a wider Israeli push to cripple the group’s access to cash, which has included targeting buildings believed to store Hezbollah funds, notably in Beirut’s southern suburbs.

Israeli military statements have typically focused on military targets. But this week’s public naming of Bakri — along with disclosures about other money changers allegedly assisting Hezbollah — represents a rare departure from the norm. Previous Israeli claims of targeting financial hubs were often dismissed by locals until the latest war provided fresh evidence, with several sites connected to Hezbollah’s cash reserves coming under fire.

Hezbollah, which is under US sanctions and designated a terrorist group by Washington, has relied almost exclusively on cash-based transactions since 2011, when Lebanese banks began shutting out individuals suspected of ties to the movement.

Financial sources told Asharq al-Awsat that the Israeli pressure campaign complements broader international efforts to sever Hezbollah’s funding channels — including tighter security at Beirut’s airport and the closure of smuggling routes to Syria.

In January, Hezbollah members cordoned off a bombed building in the Beirut suburb of Haret Hreik during debris removal operations, according to local sources. Witnesses said they saw “what was left of iron safes” being pulled from the wreckage.

No residents claimed ownership of the items retrieved, raising suspicions that the contents — believed to include large sums of money — belonged to Hezbollah.

That incident was not isolated. Residents in southern Beirut say they witnessed similar scenes after Israeli airstrikes, including burned US $100 bills scattered across the ruins of a building in the Mreijeh district. One local told Asharq al-Awsat he could not confirm whether the cash belonged to Hezbollah or to tenants of the targeted building.

Further south, residents of a village in Nabatieh district reported finding scorched money after an Israeli strike destroyed a home. During the same period, Lebanese media reported that a Hezbollah operative responsible for salary transfers was killed in northern Lebanon.

Following months of ambiguity surrounding Hezbollah’s financial network — most notably the discovery of money changer Mohammad Srour’s tortured body in Lebanon’s Mount Lebanon district in April — Israel has launched a new phase of strikes aimed at what it claims are funding channels for the Iran-backed group.

This latest move expands the scope of Israeli targeting to include four Lebanese money exchange companies allegedly linked to Hezbollah, according to the Israeli military. The move risks further damaging the reputation of Lebanon’s financial sector, already battered by years of economic collapse and corruption.

“This poses a direct threat to the credibility of the currency exchange sector,” said economist and university professor Pierre Khoury. He told Asharq al-Awsat that Lebanon urgently needs to implement financial reforms to strip Israel of its stated justifications.

“Israeli attacks are completely illegal under any pretext, as they violate the sovereignty of a nation,” Khoury said. “But the Lebanese government must eliminate any pretext by enforcing financial governance and transparency. If it does so, any future Israeli attacks will be without justification.”

Khoury pointed to international reports that say Lebanese financial institutions — including banks — are still not fully compliant with global anti-money laundering standards.

“The state must take serious steps to ensure financial transparency through capable institutions,” he added. “Only then can Lebanon shed its image as a haven for political financing and money laundering.”