Internet blackout fuels turmoil in Lebanon

The immediate cause of the shortage was the failure of a single public servant to sign a form needed for the diesel purchase.

A university student takes a course via remote learning at home in Lebanon's capital Beirut. Power shortages and soaring petrol prices mean many Lebanese students can neither afford to reach their classes nor study from home. Picture: AFP

The state-run internet company in Lebanon has warned of rolling blackouts as its generators run out of fuel, in the latest sign of the country’s political and economic collapse.

Ogero said that generators in west Beirut were out of diesel and that the internet would go dark in three districts on Sunday morning, affecting 26,000 subscribers.

By lunchtime a resident had donated diesel, allowing the service to resume, but by that time a generator had also run out in east Beirut.

Imad Kreidiyeh, Ogero’s head, threatened to resign at what he said was the government’s incompetence.

He admitted that the immediate cause of the shortage was the failure of one employee at the telecommunications ministry to sign a form needed for the diesel purchase.

However, the partial blackout is another symptom of the vicious circle in which the country is trapped. The government is in crisis over the failing economy, collapse of its currency and the power grid, and basic economic services failing due to the lack of a functioning administration.

The cabinet has not met since October following a row over some factions’ efforts to scupper the investigation into the Beirut port explosion of August 2020 that killed 216 people, itself caused by a failure of oversight.

Leaders of all factions, and the governor of the central bank, Riad Salameh, are accused of funnelling off large sums of money. If the government does meet, it will have to discuss a US-orchestrated proposal to solve its energy crisis by reviving the inter-Arab gas pipeline via Jordan and Syria to Lebanon.

The US has indicated that it will waive sanctions on Syria to allow the transfer to go ahead. But the pipeline, which only operates in its southern half, carries Egyptian mixed with Israeli gas, a sensitive issue in Lebanon and particularly for Hezbollah, Israel’s sworn enemy.

The Lebanese authorities denied a report on Israel’s Channel 12 television news that they had agreed to accept Israeli gas. It insisted it was intending to receive only Egyptian gas, though how this was to be managed is unclear.

THE TIMES