Dbeibeh Vows to Rebuild Everything Destroyed by War in Libya

Dbeibeh visits Bani Waled on Thursday. (GNU press office)
Dbeibeh visits Bani Waled on Thursday. (GNU press office)
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Dbeibeh Vows to Rebuild Everything Destroyed by War in Libya

Dbeibeh visits Bani Waled on Thursday. (GNU press office)
Dbeibeh visits Bani Waled on Thursday. (GNU press office)

The Libyan parliament called on its members to meet for an official session on Monday to discuss the state budget law and appointments to sovereign positions.

The parliament is set to convene at its headquarters in the east-based city of Tobruk.

First Deputy Speaker, Fawzi al-Noueri, questioned the call, saying it was made unilaterally and denying that he was informed of any planned meeting next week.

His announcement reflected the current divisions within the legislature.

“There can be no work in violation of reached agreements, especially after the unification of institutions,” he added.

Head of the High Council of State Khalid al-Mishri had proposed on Thursday that the state budget be approved in cooperation with the Presidential Council and central bank given the parliament’s delay in meeting and approving the draft bill.

Mishri made his proposal to head of the Government of National Unity (GNU), Abdulhamid Dbeibeh in a letter that was leaked to the media.

Dbeibeh, meanwhile, was in the city of Bani Waled, which he vowed to make the launch point for national reconciliation.

He pledged to local officials to reactivate halted projects and rebuild what was destroyed during the war in the past ten years.

The GNU ministers will be present at all Libyan cities without exception to meet the people’s needs and hear their problems, he vowed.

On Wednesday night, Dbeibeh had received in the capital Tripoli the heads of local councils from Benghazi who invited him to visit the eastern city.

The head of the GNU has yet to visit the city since his appointment. A planned visit earlier this year was scrapped due to a dispute related to his entourage.



Cash Crunch Leaves Syrians Queueing for Hours to Collect Salaries

Syrian civil servants must queue at one of two state banks or affiliated ATMs, and withdrawals are capped. LOUAI BESHARA / AFP
Syrian civil servants must queue at one of two state banks or affiliated ATMs, and withdrawals are capped. LOUAI BESHARA / AFP
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Cash Crunch Leaves Syrians Queueing for Hours to Collect Salaries

Syrian civil servants must queue at one of two state banks or affiliated ATMs, and withdrawals are capped. LOUAI BESHARA / AFP
Syrian civil servants must queue at one of two state banks or affiliated ATMs, and withdrawals are capped. LOUAI BESHARA / AFP

Seated on the pavement outside a bank in central Damascus, Abu Fares's face is worn with exhaustion as he waits to collect a small portion of his pension.
"I've been here for four hours and I haven't so much as touched my pension," said the 77-year-old, who did not wish to give his full name.

"The cash dispensers are under-stocked and the queues are long," he continued.

Since the overthrow of president Bashar al-Assad last December, Syria has been struggling to emerge from the wake of nearly 14 years of civil war, and its banking sector is no exception.

Decades of punishing sanctions imposed on the Assad dynasty -- which the new authorities are seeking to have lifted -- have left about 90 percent of Syrians under the poverty line, according to the United Nations.

The liquidity crisis has forced authorities to drastically limit cash withdrawals, leaving much of the population struggling to make ends meet.

Prior to his ousting, Assad's key ally Russia held a monopoly on printing banknotes. The new authorities have only announced once that they have received a shipment of banknotes from Moscow since Assad's overthrow.
In a country with about 1.25 million public sector employees, civil servants must queue at one of two state banks or affiliated ATMs to make withdrawals, capped at about 200,000 Syrian pounds, the equivalent on the black market of $20 per day.

In some cases, they have to take a day off just to wait for the cash.

"There are sick people, elderly... we can't continue like this," said Abu Fares.

'Meagre sums'
"There is a clear lack of cash, and for that reason we deactivate the ATMs at the end of the workday," an employee at a private bank told AFP, preferring not to give her name.

A haphazard queue of about 300 people stretches outside the Commercial Bank of Syria. Some are sitting on the ground.

Afraa Jumaa, a civil servant, said she spends most of the money she withdraws on the travel fare to get to and from the bank.

"The conditions are difficult and we need to withdraw our salaries as quickly as possible," said the 43-year-old.
"It's not acceptable that we have to spend days to withdraw meagre sums."

The local currency has plunged in value since the civil war erupted in 2011, prior to which the dollar was valued at 50 pounds.

Economist Georges Khouzam explained that foreign exchange vendors -- whose work was outlawed under Assad -- "deliberately reduced cash flows in Syrian pounds to provoke rapid fluctuations in the market and turn a profit".

Muntaha Abbas, a 37-year-old civil servant, had to return three times to withdraw her entire salary of 500,000 pounds.

"There are a lot of ATMs in Damascus, but very few of them work," she said.

After a five-hour wait, she was finally able to withdraw 200,000 pounds.

"Queues and more queues... our lives have become a series of queues," she lamented.