Al Bawaba

The legendary cedar of Lebanon
is the oldest recorded tree in human history, having been first
mentioned some 4,500 years ago. The Egyptian pharaohs and other ancient
Mediterranean civilizations used the wood to build their palaces,
temples and ships. Centuries later, the cedars of Lebanon are in
trouble, with only a few isolated groves left, due to deforestation and
illegal logging. But that is changing. In the last six years, more
than 600,000 trees — cedars as well as other native species — have been
planted throughout the country as part of the Lebanon Reforestation
Initiative (LRI). The goal of the initiative, launched in 2010
with help from USAID, the US Forest Service, the Lebanese government and
local business sponsors, is to expand existing wilderness reserves and increase forest cover by 50 percent by the year 2020.

“Getting trees to grow in these
severely degraded lands is a major challenge,” says Darin Stringer, an
Oregon forester and head of the consultancy Pacific Stewardship, who was
brought in by the Forest Service as an adviser to the LRI. But
the Lebanese are “passionate in their desire to reclaim their forests,”
Stringer says. The initiative has helped introduce sustainable forestry
practices and wildfire management to Lebanon, in combination with
traditional methods.

By Niazi Kabalan, Pinsent Masons – Financial Times

After a three year hiatus, Lebanon has approved two crucial decrees
required to relaunch the country’s first offshore energy licensing
round. The Lebanese authorities are preparing a road map to resume a
stalled plan to allow global oil companies to explore for hydrocarbons
in the eastern Mediterranean country. The hotly anticipated licence round signals a new era for Lebanese
oil and gas which has been thwarted by delays after a political
stalemate put the brakes on a planned launch in 2013, despite the
licensing round having attracted super majors and oil companies from
around the globe.

While news of the refreshed tender process is turning the heads of
the global oil industry, the mood music is one of cautious optimism as
companies demand the promise of a stable and fiscally attractive
petroleum regime before signing on the dotted line. Indeed, oil price
fluctuations mean investment decisions are not made lightly; with new
licensing rounds planned elsewhere in the region, such as in Cyprus,
Oman, Iran and Iraq, Lebanon must act fast to compete for investment.

With offshore oil reserves estimated to be anywhere between 440m and
675m barrels, and possibly as much as 96tn cubic feet (tcf) of offshore
natural gas reserves, potentially worth a combined $300bn-$600bn,
Lebanon has a lot to offer global oil companies. Rival countries across
the eastern Mediterranean have proved that this region offers lucrative
oil and gas reserves making its complex and costly deep water geology
well worth the investment.

Last year Italian oil major Eni announced record-breaking production
rates at its Nooros field off the coast of Egypt just 13 months after
its discovery. Together with the discovery of Eni’s “super-giant” Zohr
field in Egypt, and Total’s announcement of nearby drilling off the
coast of Cyprus, interest has been renewed in the eastern Mediterranean
basin. This undoubtedly has reinvigorated Lebanon’s hopes of becoming an
oil and gas producer.

But while Lebanon generally offers a favourable environment for
foreign investors with appealing low corporation tax and
investor-friendly business regulations, the regulatory landscape is not
quite ready to open its doors to global oil players.

By Al Arabiya Lebanese media personality Dalia Freyfer has endeavored to set a Guinness world record by presenting the longest live television broadcast on the Tele Liban channel. Freyfer, who has been blind since she was 18 years old, set the record in the presence of a Guinness world record representative. She has broken the […]

By reuters, A Syrian Christian Orthodox family was turned back from Philadelphia International Airport after traveling to the United States from Lebanon, airport sources in Beirut said on Sunday.
The family of six were denied entry under U.S. President Donald Trump’s new ban on nationals of seven Muslim-majority countries, including Syria, and flew back to Lebanon via Doha, the sources said. (Writing by John Davison, editing by Larry King)

DUBAI: Emirates airline has changed pilot and flight attendant
rosters on flights to the United States following the sudden U.S. travel
ban on seven Muslim-majority countries, but it said U.S. flights
continue to operate to schedule. The world’s largest long-haul
carrier, who flies daily to 11 U.S. cities, has made “the necessary
adjustments to our crewing, to comply with the latest requirements,” an
Emirates spokeswoman told Reuters by email on Sunday. President
Donald Trump on Friday temporarily suspended the entry of people from
Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. The decision caught
airlines off guard, according to the International Air Transport
Association

The ban applies to pilots and flight attendants from the seven
countries, even though all flight crew who are not U.S. citizens already
need a special visa to enter the country. Another Emirates
spokeswoman said the impact of the ban on operations would be minimal.
The airline employs over 23,000 flight attendants and about four
thousand pilots from around the world, including the United States,
Europe and the Middle East.

By The Hill ^

| Max Greenwood

The United States could prioritize the resettlement of Christian
refugees over members of other religious groups, President Trump said on
Friday. “They’ve been horribly treated,” Trump said in an
interview with Christian Broadcasting Network anchor David Brody. “Do
you know if you were a Christian in Syria it was impossible, at least
very tough, to get into the United States?”

“If you were a Muslim
you could come in, but if you were a Christian, it was almost
impossible and the reason that was so unfair, everybody was persecuted
in all fairness, but they were chopping off the heads of everybody but
more so the Christians. And I thought it was very, very unfair. So we
are going to help them.” When asked by Brody if he saw helping persecuted Christians abroad as a “priority,” Trump promptly replied, “yes.”

Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) meets with Syrian religious leaders in
Aleppo, led by Archbishop Denys Antoine Chahda of the Syrian Catholic
Church of Aleppo, and joined by Archbishop Joseph Tabji of Maronite
Church of Aleppo, Rev. Ibrahim Nseir of the Arab Evangelical
Presbyterian Church of Aleppo, and others. Each called for peace, and an
end to foreign support of terrorists who are trying to rid Syria of its
secular, pluralistic, free society. (Photo from Gabbard’s website,
courtesy of Abraham Williams)

By Susan Jones |

CNSNews.com) – Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, a Hawaii Democrat, says she made a
secret, four-day trip to Syria — meeting with ordinary people and even
President Bashar al-Assad — because the suffering of the Syrian people
“has been weighing heavily on my heart.” “I wanted to see if
there was in some small way, a way that I could express the love and the
aloha and the care that the American people have for the people of
Syria, and to see firsthand what was happening there, to see that
situation there,” Gabbard told CNN’s “The Lead” with Jake Tapper on
Wednesday.

She returned with a message:

“I’ll tell you what I
heard from the Syrian people that I met with, Jake, walking down the
street in Aleppo, in Damascus, hearing from them. “They expressed
happiness and joy at seeing an American walking through their streets.
But they also asked why the U.S. and its allies are providing support
and arms to terrorist groups like al-Nusra, al-Qaida or al-Sham, ISIS
who are on the ground there, raping, kidnapping, torturing and killing
the Syrian people.

“They asked me, why is the United States and its allies supporting
these terrorist groups who are destroying Syria when it was al Qaida who
attacked the United States on 9/11, not Syria. I didn’t have an answer
for them,” Gabbard said. “The reality is… every place that I
went, every person that I spoke to, I asked this question to them, and
without hesitation, they said, there are no moderate rebels. Who are
these moderate rebels that people keep speaking of?

Regardless of
the name of these groups, the strongest fighting force on the ground in
Syria is al Nusra, or al Qaida and ISIS. That is a fact,” Gabbard said. “There
is a number of different, other groups — all of them essentially are
fighting alongside, with, or under the command of the strongest group on
the ground that’s trying to overthrow Assad.

By Daniel J. Graeber – UPI 

Transparency is a top priority for a Lebanese government looking to
bring bidders back to its offshore oil and gas reserves, the energy
minister said. Lebanon this week filed a request to join the Extractive Industries
Transparency Initiative, a body that aims to cast light on how countries
manage their oil, gas and mineral resources. Energy Minister Cesar Abi
Khalil said that, as the country opens itself up to foreign energy investors, accountability was essential.

“At the beginning of the new term [of office], transparency is our
main focus,” he was quoted by The Daily Star in Lebanon as saying.The effort follows a decision to put five offshore oil and gas blocks
up for auction in Lebanon’s Exclusive Economic Zone by the end of
February. State profits, the minister said, would be decided after the
bidding process is completed.

Decrees put forward by the Lebanese government outline a model for
revenue sharing, something that derailed previous efforts to court
foreign investors. Three years ago, Beirut postponed an offshore natural
gas auction after rancor erupted over the amount of revenue Beirut would get from energy companies. The Lebanese government estimates there are 95 trillion cubic feet of
natural gas and 750 million barrels of oil in its territorial waters.
The country, meanwhile, has been at odds over maritime borders in the
Mediterranean Sea. According to the Lebanese newspaper, Israel has been
the hold out in U.N.-mediated efforts to settle border disputes.