Lebanon Mulls Closing Down Several Diplomatic Missions

Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib gestures as he speaks during an interview with Reuters at his office at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beirut, Lebanon November 2, 2021. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib gestures as he speaks during an interview with Reuters at his office at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beirut, Lebanon November 2, 2021. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
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Lebanon Mulls Closing Down Several Diplomatic Missions

Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib gestures as he speaks during an interview with Reuters at his office at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beirut, Lebanon November 2, 2021. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib gestures as he speaks during an interview with Reuters at his office at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beirut, Lebanon November 2, 2021. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir

Since the beginning of 2022, Lebanon’s diplomatic missions abroad have not received their operating expenses, while ambassadors and employees are still waiting for the transfer of their accumulated salaries since May.

The sharp decline of foreign currency reserves at the central bank (Banque du Liban) prompted Governor Riad Salameh to adopt unprecedented austerity measures that have affected the conditions of the country’s diplomatic missions. Those are paid in US dollars, unlike public sector employees, who work inside Lebanon and receive their salaries in Lebanese pounds.

There are currently 89 diplomatic missions, including 74 embassies and 15 consulates, while the total annual salaries of diplomats amount to about USD30 million.

Two years ago, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs began implementing a harsh austerity plan that significantly reduced missions’ expenses.

In the past weeks, the ministry issued several circulars to the heads of diplomatic and consular missions, revising rent allowances and salaries of ambassadors and employees, and canceling all annual allocations for celebrations and receptions.

Lebanon has been mired in what the World Bank classified as one of the worst economic and financial crises since the mid-19th century. The central bank consumed most of its hard currency reserves, which led to the scarcity of the dollar and the devaluation of the local currency.

“Delay in transferring salaries and covering operational costs stirred discontent among the diplomatic missions, which we fully understand,” sources at the foreign ministry said.

Last year, caretaker minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates, Abdallah Bou Habib, pointed to the presence of 12 embassies and consulates that can be closed down, based on expenditures, imports and diplomatic value; but no decision has been taken yet in this regard.

In February, Lebanon told embassies to look for donors to help cover their running costs.



Hamas Official Says Group ‘Appreciates’ Lebanon’s Right to Reach Agreement

 A man walks next to a destroyed building in Beirut's southern suburbs on November 27, 2024, as people returned to the area to check their homes after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took effect. (AFP)
A man walks next to a destroyed building in Beirut's southern suburbs on November 27, 2024, as people returned to the area to check their homes after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took effect. (AFP)
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Hamas Official Says Group ‘Appreciates’ Lebanon’s Right to Reach Agreement

 A man walks next to a destroyed building in Beirut's southern suburbs on November 27, 2024, as people returned to the area to check their homes after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took effect. (AFP)
A man walks next to a destroyed building in Beirut's southern suburbs on November 27, 2024, as people returned to the area to check their homes after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took effect. (AFP)

Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said on Wednesday the group "appreciates" Lebanon's right to reach an agreement that protects its people and it hopes for a deal to end the war in Gaza.

A ceasefire between Israel and the Lebanese Hezbollah movement came into effect on Wednesday after both sides accepted an agreement brokered by the United States and France, but international efforts to halt the 14-month-old war between Hamas and Israel in the Palestinian territory of Gaza have stalled.

"Hamas appreciates the right of Lebanon and Hezbollah to reach an agreement that protects the people of Lebanon and we hope that this agreement will pave the way to reaching an agreement that ends the war of genocide against our people in Gaza," Abu Zuhri told Reuters.

Later on Wednesday, the group said in a statement it was open to efforts to secure a deal in Gaza, reiterating its outstanding conditions.

"We are committed to cooperating with any effort to reach a ceasefire in Gaza and we are interested in ending the aggression against our people," Hamas said.

It added that an agreement must end the war, pull Israeli forces out of Gaza, return displaced Gazans to their homes, and achieve a hostages-for-prisoners swap deal.

Without a similar deal in Gaza, many residents said they felt abandoned. In the latest violence, Israeli military strikes across the Gaza Strip killed 15 people on Wednesday, some of them in a school housing displaced people, medics there said.

Months of attempts to negotiate a ceasefire have yielded scant progress and negotiations are now on hold, with mediator Qatar saying it has told the two warring parties it would suspend its efforts until the sides are prepared to make concessions.

Abu Zuhri blamed the failure to reach a ceasefire deal that would end the Gaza war on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has repeatedly accused Hamas of foiling efforts.

"Hamas showed high flexibility to reach an agreement and it is still committed to that position and is interested in reaching an agreement that ends the war in Gaza," Abu Zuhri said.

"The problem was always with Netanyahu who has always escaped from reaching an agreement," he added.

Hamas wants an agreement that ends the war in Gaza and sees the release of Israeli and foreign hostages as well as Palestinians jailed by Israel, while Netanyahu has said the war can only end after Hamas is eradicated.

In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, senior Palestinian Authority Hussein Al-Sheikh welcomed the agreement in Lebanon.

"We welcome the decision to ceasefire in Lebanon, and we call on the international community to pressure Israel to stop its criminal war in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, and to stop all its escalatory measures against the Palestinian people," Sheikh, a confidant of President Mahmoud Abbas, posted on X.

US President Joe Biden said on Tuesday his administration was pushing for a ceasefire in Gaza.