International pressure on Riyadh ‘unlikely to unlock aid to Lebanon’
US and French diplomats have put pressure on Saudi Arabia to increase its involvement in Lebanon.
Ambassadors Anne Grillo of France and Dorothy Shea of the US visited Riyadh on Thursday to discuss Lebanon’s economic crisis and political paralysis.
They said in a joint statement afterwards that the country desperately needed a “fully empowered government”.
The international community has refused to bail out Lebanon after decades of mismanagement and corruption, saying politicians should first bring in laws to increase transparency and accountability.
“We are providing a lot of emergency and humanitarian aid to Lebanon, but we could do much more if the Lebanese shouldered their responsibilities,” a French diplomatic source told The National. Saudi Arabia has traditionally been financially supportive of Lebanon, but it has distanced itself in recent years owing to increasing concern about the power wielded by Hezbollah.
The militant Shiite group is backed by Saudi Arabia’s regional arch-enemy, Iran.
Analyst Ali Shihabi said it was unlikely the kingdom would deliver more than in-kind help.
“Saudi Arabia has been running a deficit for years and has its own requirements to restructure its economy. The days of the Saudi chequebook are over,” he said.
“I think this idea of getting on a plane to Saudi Arabia to ask them to write a cheque is ridiculous because that is not how such an issue would be approached by the kingdom any more.”
Mr Shihabi said Washington and Paris should have put pressure on Lebanon’s leaders by freezing their assets abroad at the start of the economic crisis in 2019.
France, the former colonial power, said in May it would impose sanctions on politicians blocking government formation, but the threat has fallen on deaf ears. The only top official being investigated for his wealth in France is Riad Salameh, head of the Lebanese central bank.
Yet Saudi Arabia is still open to providing in-kind support such as field hospitals, medicine and food, as well as aid to the Lebanese military, Mr Shihabi said.
The 80,000-strong army is the only state institution that continues to receive direct support and Turkey, Morocco, Iraq and France have sent food packages to help it feed its soldiers.
Karim El Mufti, professor of political science at Saint-Joseph University in Beirut, said France and the US were more interested in Riyadh remaining diplomatically involved in Lebanon than in asking for cash assistance. “They’re saying: ‘Even if you don’t care, let’s try to keep Lebanon afloat from a humanitarian and security perspective to not create a new Somalia on the borders with Israel which would give Hezbollah free range’,” he said.
That the two ambassadors represented the interest of their countries as well as of the Lebanese people is widely viewed as a diplomatic first.
“It’s an interesting gesture: foreign diplomats travelled from Beirut to Riyadh to provide for a population that is not theirs,”
Analyst Ali Shihabi said Saudi Arabia was still open to providing in-kind support such as field hospitals and food
Prof El Mufti said. “Yet from a protocol perspective, it has zero weight, because they are not foreign affairs ministers.”
Last week, French MP Gwendal Rouillard suggested setting up an international task force in Lebanon, supervised by the UN and the World Bank.
His proposal is significant because of his proximity to French Foreign Affairs Minister JeanYves Le Drian.
Prof El Mufti said the UN provides the strongest international legal mechanism to fill in the power vacuum left by Lebanon’s elite. The UN’s trusteeship council, which normally administrates countries without sovereignty, has been dormant since 1994, but can be reactivated, he said. “Lebanon has no way of implementing its sovereignty today. It’s in social, economic and financial chaos,” he told The National.
This month, the UAE’s Ministry of Education launched a social media campaign warning young people about the dangers of illicit drug use. This initiative, aimed at preventing substance use disorders, was launched with this tweet: “Your life is a gift. You must protect it from bad company and instead surround yourself with family, strengthen your independence, and invest in your future for the sake of your nation ... Don’t try drugs and don’t sacrifice your life for drugs.”
The WHO reports that substance use disorders have the highest mortality rate of all psychological problems. People addicted to opioids, for example, are 15 times more likely to die prematurely compared to non-users. Beyond physical harm, drugs take a massive social and emotional toll, too, ruining the lives of individuals, fracturing families and devastating communities.
I grew up in Liverpool during the 1980s. Back then, many of the city’s neighbourhoods were being decimated by a heroin epidemic. One of my lasting memories of those days was a poem I once saw, which had been painstakingly etched onto a wall using dead matches. Written in the uppercase of desperation, it read: “Smack-head is my name, or so it seems. Smack smothered my hopes and shattered my dreams. Created to live in a world full of hurt, where pushers push drugs and don’t think of the hurt.”
There is something very sincere about graffiti. It is typically anonymous and often represents a spontaneous outpouring of the heart. I read this graffiti poem only once, 30 years ago, and it has stayed with me ever since. I wonder what became of its author. Did they escape their addiction? Did they find a cure?
Prevention, of course, is better than cure. With substance use disorders, the best way to prevent the problem is to ensure first-time use (initiation) never occurs. If we don’t try a substance, we can’t get hooked. The Ministry of Education has chosen the perfect time of year to launch this initiation-prevention campaign, right at the start of the school summer holidays. Research by the US Department of Health looking at substance use initiation shows a clear spike in first-time drug use during the summer vacation period between June to August. This is often a time when young people have unsupervised free time, and, for some, it is a time to travel abroad.
One of the few studies exploring first-time drug use in the region involved 267 patients receiving treatment for heroin addiction at the Psychological Medicine Hospital in Kuwait. All patients were asked to recount their reasons. Number one was “personal problems at home”, closely followed by “excessive unsupervised free time”. The third and fourth reasons were experimentation, curiosity and overseas travel.
Excessive unsupervised free time, also known as poor parental monitoring, opens the door to negative peer pressure and greater opportunities for
Narcotics are a revolving door that have the ability to shatter many a hope and smother many a dream
first-time use. When we travel to new places, we can often feel anonymous, adventurous and slightly disinhibited. Feeling this way opens us up to trying new experiences – what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas – including illicit substance use. Furthermore, some places we travel to have relatively lax drug controls; substances hard to get at home are available. Thus, a lack of parental supervision and the dizzying effects of overseas travel can converge.
Overseas travel might be a major factor, but drug use at home happens, too. Despite every effort, illicit drugs still make it into the UAE. Reports of drug seizures by UAE customs officials and those of neighbouring Gulf countries have been increasing steadily over the past decade, especially for amphetamine-type substances, such as Captagon.
The 2021 World Drug Report by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime documents a massive regional increase in amphetamine seizures, from around 20 tonnes in 2009, to just over 50 tonnes in 2019. But, for every shipment seized, how many are making it through?
Supply follows demand and helps create it. We need to do more to prevent first-time drug use. Tragically, for some unfortunate individuals, the first time will lead to a lifetime of chemical dependence and squandered human potential.
The recent preventative initiative from the Ministry of Education is part of the solution. The campaign also includes a poem written and recited by a recovered former drug user. The poet recounts his initiation, fall and eventual salvation, aiming to dissuade others from making the same mistakes. The work is in Arabic with an English translation. The following section captures why it is so vital to prevent first-time use:
“I heard the phrases, try it, try it, try it ... It’s impossible to get addicted from a single try … I tried it and I wish I never had ... It’s like a black hole, filled with unknown darkness … You don’t see that until you get sucked into it. I saw my dreams begin to fade into the distance …”
Fortunately, this poet’s journey has a positive ending.
“Inspiring individuals were the source of my liberation, and the rehabilitation centres offered me support and treatment … Now, I stand here stronger than before. I continue to live my life achieving my ambitions and dreams.”
For many who become entangled with drugs, tragically, the ending is far less happy. Instead, dreams are smothered, and lives are lived on the revolving door of rehab and relapse. So let’s do all we can to try and ensure first-time use never happens.